Black Friday Lockdown Shopping Trends 2020 Statistics

2020 has looked considerably different this year in many aspects.

Not only have we changed the way we socialise, have fun and work - but now it would seem that the lockdown has also impacted the way we shopped.

Back a couple of months ago - Fablious reported that our spending over the first UK lockdown in March increased by 17%, splashing out on things such as gambling, groceries and even buy now pay later products when compared to the previous period.

Lockdown 2.0 has also shown us some changes in our spending habits as well as shopping trends collectively this year. As in the UK on the 2nd of November, all non-essential shops were forced to close during a second national lockdown, meaning that the majority of retailers we’d typically shop at were closed, sending a vast wave of shoppers online.

But while we opted to shop online instead of in-store this Black Friday in preparation for Christmas - Fablious conducted research to find out whether there were any new shopping trends this year. As well as looking at how they differed from our habits in 2019.

How did our Black Friday habits differ from last year?

1. Retail Finance

The Buy Now Pay Later industry has been booming during the lockdown period after picking up popularity over 2018 and 2019. This year in 2020, when a lot of our circumstances have changed - 5 times more users decided to opt to pay for their purchases online using retail finance when compared to last year.

2. Fashion

With big-name fashion retailers boasting of deals of up to 70% off this year - it’s no wonder that many of us were spending more money on making sure our post-lockdown wardrobes were filled with a range of beautiful outfits. This year in 2020 our average spending on general fashion increased slightly by 4% while on average shoppers were spending three times as more on women’s fashion than last year.

3. Groceries

What a rollercoaster year it’s been for supermarkets, with panic buying toilet rolls and canned goods happened at the beginning of the year back in March - during lockdown supermarket spending increased significantly. While this could be partly due to restrictions of allowing only essential shops to stay open - with supermarkets remaining consistently open throughout the pandemic while many other shops were shut. This black Friday the total amount of spending at supermarkets increased by 31%.

4. Pet Accessories

Many of us took advantage of being able to spend more time at home by adopting, fostering and even buying a little four-legged friend to keep us company during the lockdown. So much so that the number of us shopping for our fourlegged friends increased by 91% when compared to black Friday 2019.

5. Computers, Laptops and Tablets

Lockdown has changed the way many of us work, making working from home a new part of our routines. This year during the Black Friday sales in 2020 - most of us took advantage of the discounted prices and bought computers, laptops and tablets online with most of us spending 12 times more than we did last year on likewise electronic devices.

6. Sportswear

Now that the cold weather hit and many of us were confined to our own homes in lockdown this November - most of us were reluctant to spend as much money as we were last year on sportswear. Even though most of us have been stepping up our fitness came in lockdown by taking up jogging or enjoying a brisk walk outside - the average amount being spent on sports clothing dropped by a massive 88%.

7. Hotels and Accommodation

While some of us would be preparing to go somewhere nice for Christmas or even in the New Year - this year many of us were reluctant to splurge their hard-earned cash on hotels and accommodation at home or even abroad - with many opting to stay at home this year and perhaps even next! As the average amount being spent on hotels and accommodation dropped by 96%.

8. Takeaways

It wasn’t only shopping retailers that were offering great discounts either! In fact, many takeaway brands were also offering their customers huge discounts on their meals on Black Friday as well - seeing as restaurants, cafes and bistros weren’t allowed to open their doors for sit-in customers. This meant that overall the amount being spent on takeaways increased by 149% since Black Friday 2019.

What does this say about Black Friday 2020?

2020 has been the year of many firsts and changes for a lot of us.

How and where we shop has also been impacted as we can see that there has been a lot less money spent this year on things such as holiday and staycation accommodation, eating out at restaurants and cafes, as well as sportswear and equipment.

These black Friday trends show that there’s been more about staying at home and enjoying our time at home than going out - enforced by lockdown measures within the UK.

*Sample data taken from anonymous Fablious open banking data, from 1,600 users from 29/11/2019 compared to 27/11/2020.