In this article, we share the key trends, standout successes, and lessons that shaped this season. From early offers to pacing budgets strategically, we’ll explore how retailers can adapt these insights to ensure a winning approach for 2025 and beyond.
The Global Story of Black Friday 2024
Black Friday was a week later than last year, falling on the 29th, something we haven’t seen since November 2019. Based on 2019 the expectation was the last week of November would generate 41% of the total revenue for the month.
Whilst the US experienced a robust +17% d/d growth most markets didn’t fare so well with France holding steady with +0.5% d/d but contrasting declines in Italy, Spain, and Germany.
The UK’s Winners & Losers
Whilst it may not have been as strong as retailers hoped for the UK market performance was still adequate , with a 3% day-over-day (d/d) growth on Black Friday and a 6% week-over-week (w/w) increase.
Winners included:
- Sports: +24% d/d, +22% w/w
- Luxury and Gifting: +14% d/d, +15% w/w
- Beauty: +11% d/d, +13% w/w
- Fashion: +11% d/d, +11%w/w
Categories that didn’t fare so well included:
- Electronics: -2% d/d, +4% w/w/
- Health: -8%d/d, - 1% w/w
- Home: 6% d/d, 2% w/w
Our learnings from this year's Black Friday trends
Black Friday shopping started early in the month of November.
Many advertisers started their offers earlier and with Black Friday falling a week later it meant their offers ran a week longer than the previous year.
The brands who stuck to the Black Friday week only to promote offers struggled to gain momentum since consumers had already been shopping.
Typically Black Friday week overall sees a bump in sales whereas this year the significant increase came from Black Friday and Cyber Monday with slower sales over the weekend.
With people spreading their purchases throughout the month this means that in 2025 retailers have to think carefully about a longer sale period and pace their advertising budgets more steadily throughout the month without so much emphasis being placed on just the Black Friday weekend.
Prisyncy analysed the price index before and during the offer and their analysis demonstrated that all retailers decided to offer deep discounts throughout the sale period to be competitive so ensuring your offers are truly compelling matters.
Lower traffic volumes and lower average basket values demonstrated that consumers are still budget conscious however this negative was balanced out by stronger conversion rates. The intent to get a great deal outweighed their price sensitivity.
With Black Friday being a key time of year where consumers are willing to buy from brands they haven’t purchased from before businesses should also consider how they craft offers to attract new customers and what their plans will be to build a relationship with them following that first purchase that demonstrates their value and gets them coming back to buy at full price.
Success Stories That Stood Out
Several clients achieved remarkable growth this year:
- Aquarium and Terrariums hit a 72% total sales increase this BF period vs LY with half the spend
- Men's Grooming brand grew their total sales by 12% vs LY
- Personalised jewellery brand grew by 5% vs LY
- International fashion brand grew their revenue by 165% vs LY following a steady growth and international expansion throughout the year
- International outdoor fashion brand grew total sales by 20% without participating in the BF discounts
- UK heritage skincare brand grew total sales by 34% vs last year
If your results this Q4 weren’t quite what you’d hoped for feel free to get in touch with Push today!
