Mixed picture for Black Friday sales, fashion and beauty prove popular

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Nov 30, 2020

Following news that Barclaycard transactions were down almost 17% on Black Friday, Nationwide Building Society said its live debit card figures for the day saw more than 4.7m transactions.

That was down only 1% on the same period last year, but up 19% on the same period the previous Friday.

And it seems that consumers who were buying got in early with transaction values actually running 2% ahead of last year until mid-day.

Meanwhile, John Lewis said its online orders were 35% ahead, although with only three of its stores open, that was no surprise.

The company had seen a 37% surge in searches around the Black Friday theme and said its busiest hour was actually the day its deals were launched, a whole week before Black Friday. 

That news came on the back of many retailers launching their deals early this year and John Lewis said that “people have shopped on average earlier than in previous years”.

The retailer also said that as of Friday, it had shipped more than 2.5 million products since its Black Friday offers began, up 67% year-on-year.

There were more than 18.7 million searches in total and while toys and electricals were popular, fashion and beauty brands also proved appealing. They included Mint Velvet, Hush, Charlotte Tilbury, Barbour, Clavin Klein, and Chanel. 

And its Give a Little Love Heart Shaped Umbrella was its top fashion product of all.

With proceeds from the sale of that item being donated to charity, it underlined the fact that a number of businesses have this year focused on altruism as much as driving sales higher for Black Friday.

Anya Hindmarch, for instance, said it didn’t discount anything for the three-day weekend shopping period, but gave its profits to charity.

The company said it decided to use the pandemic-induced pause “to reflect” on the way that the business operates and to “reset” its timetable to one that it thinks “will better suit customers, the business, and our planet”.

It donated its profits to the Voice For Nature Foundation to help bring “widespread media attention and solutions to urgent global environmental issues”.