December 17 2018

Shoppers select online as their shopping channel of choice for Black Friday 2018 

Our customer survey has shown that, yet again, consumers opted to buy online rather than hit the high street during this year’s Black Friday bargain bonanza.

While the UK's Online Retail Association, IMRG reported less of an increase in online spending than it had originally forecast, figures remain on the up. Online spend grew by 7.3% during Black Friday 2018 compared to the same day last year.

At Yodel, we like to get under the skin of key retail trends like this, to help retailers understand more about customer behaviour and thanks to ‘Have Your Say’, our comprehensive survey of online shoppers, which collects the views of over 7,000 customers every day, we’re able to share some valuable insight. Looking at this year’s Black Friday a number of interesting themes stand out:

People bought more online than they thought they would

It seems that the lure of Black Friday is more irresistible than consumers realise. When we asked people before the event, only 40% said they would shop online for Black Friday. After the event we saw a completely different picture; out of the 72% of people who told us they would made a Black Friday purchase, 58% made their purchases purely online, that’s up from 53% last year.

Fashion and technology lead the way

Each year, we look at which products people are buying but our survey also tells us who is buying those products. This year, we discovered that fashion and footwear - by far the most popular product choice, was a particular draw for women. However, for male shoppers, tech and electrical goods were the most popular product types, whilst health and beauty products proved the biggest hit with 18 to 24-year-olds.

There’s no place like home

Overwhelmingly, consumers are choosing to have Black Friday purchases delivered to their homes, with other delivery options still lagging behind. Our survey showed that 9 in 10 deliveries were made to home and only 7% of customers opted for a delivery to either work, friends and family or a retailer store with delivery to a designated locker used by only 1% of respondents. Interestingly though, deliveries to work and lockers were more popular with men.

It’s not all about Christmas

The festive shopping floodgates are well and truly open by Black Friday so it’s perhaps surprising to learn that, according to our survey, almost a quarter (22%) of consumers weren’t intending any of their purchases to be Christmas gifts. 69% of people who made Black Friday purchases said half or more were for Christmas gifts, there were certainly a few who take the opportunity to treat themselves.

Black Friday can be a Red Letter Day for customer satisfaction

Maintaining delivery standards is just as important on Black Friday as it is on every other day of the year and during this busy time Yodel is committed to helping retailers achieve high levels of customer satisfaction (CSAT). In 2018, our survey showed that CSAT was 86% for overall satisfaction of Black Friday deliveries. Further analysis showed that this figure increased to 87% for women, and dropped to 84% for 25 to 34-year-olds.

Black Friday continues to provide us with useful intelligence into customer preferences and behaviours during sales season and with Boxing Day just around the corner, insight like this can help retailers to stay firmly ahead of the curve.

Enter your details on the form to your right-hand side to learn more about our Have Your Say customer feedback programme and services.