Black Friday delivers restricted elevate to discretionary retail gross sales in November

Black Friday offered solely a modest increase to discretionary retail gross sales in November, with whole like-for-like gross sales rising 3.4% in opposition to a weak comparability interval in 2024, in line with BDO’s newest Excessive Avenue Gross sales Tracker.

The rise adopted a 5.8% fall a 12 months earlier. The month, which included the height promotional weekend, noticed in-store gross sales rise 1.3% from a 5.5% decline in November 2024. BDO mentioned the advance was nonetheless properly beneath inflation, pointing to decrease gross sales volumes.

Progress was pushed by on-line spending, which elevated 9.9% in contrast with a 7.8% fall final 12 months. The figures replicate the continued problem confronted by bodily shops in attracting customers, whereas on-line gross sales solely returned to ranges seen in 2023.

Sophie Michael, head of retail and wholesale at BDO, mentioned: “Black Friday didn’t drive any significant gross sales progress for retailers or get customers spending in shops in November.

“In reality, the week of Black Friday noticed the bottom gross sales progress through the month, at simply 0.38% above the identical week final 12 months. Gross sales on the excessive road registered minimal progress, and whereas on-line gross sales carried out higher, retailers discounted closely all through November to generate these gross sales, which could have put additional strain on their margins.”

Michael mentioned weaker sentiment was additionally holding again discretionary spending and that “wider financial situations are unlikely to have inspired many consumers to exit and spend in discretionary classes”.

She mentioned: “Whereas retailers could have thought that customers have been holding again till the funds, which was unhelpfully late within the Golden Quarter, the anticipated surge in Black Friday discretionary spending simply hasn’t materialised.”

Michael additionally warned that discounting was unlikely to offer an easy resolution. She concluded: “Will probably be tempting for retailers to proceed the heavy discounting we noticed in November, to spice up gross sales and clear inventory earlier than new product traces come by in January, however we all know that this solely erodes margins.

“Margins and income are already below large strain, and we’ve seen in November that reductions should not sufficient to get customers into shops. The stability between being left with excessive ranges of inventory or driving income down shall be difficult. With one month to go, retailers must be inventive in how they have interaction with prospects and entice spending on this aggressive panorama the place financial pressures are reshaping festive priorities.”