Black Friday - What’s it All About?

27th Nov. 2015

Black Friday is a term we’re all familiar with - it’s one of the biggest shopping days of the year! - but what’s it all about? Where did it come from? And how much are we really spending in total on the day?

In the United States, Black Friday has been around since the 1960s. There are many different supposed origins of the term, but a popular belief is that while stores struggled to stay out of the red throughout the year, their profits finally hit the black the day after Thanksgiving. Now that the turkey was out of the way, the next big event in the calendar was Christmas, and families wanted to start buying presents.

Black Friday in the UK

In the United Kingdom, it’s a much more recent concept. Black Friday on this side of the pond can be traced back to 2003, but it wasn’t until 2013 that it really became huge - this is when Asda (part of the US-based Walmart chain) - announced that they would be bringing the tradition to Britain.

2014 was by far the biggest Black Friday in the UK to date, with big names like John Lewis also getting in on the bargain action. However, despite predictions, 2014 sales figures failed to knock Boxing Day off the top spot. While £810 million was spent on Black Friday last year, a whopping £2.7 billion was spent on Boxing Day. This year, all that is expected to change, and Black Friday is anticipated to take over!

Experts are estimating that Black Friday sales in 2015 will be boosted by up to 17 percent online, and by roughly 4 percent in store and, according to Google, Black Friday searches are up by more than 3 percent on last year! Amazon are reported to be offering twice as many Black Friday deals this year, bringing their sales range up to 7000 products and offering more choice to bargain hunters.