Nearly £3m is set to be spent every minute over Black Friday weekend, according to a new report.

The VoucherCodes.co.uk Shopping for Christmas 2020 report, carried out by the Centre for Retail Research (CRR), shows that despite lockdown 2.0, UK consumers are set to spend a total of £7.504bn over the Black Friday weekend – a 12.4% drop on 2019 due to store closures.

Despite the decline, online sales are forecast to increase almost £2bn across Black Friday weekend, with total online sales rising 52.9% from £3.771bn (2019) to £5.764bn this year.

Online spending is predicted to peak on Black Friday itself when £1.34m will be spent every minute. Offline spending will hit its highest amount at £0.96m every minute on Cyber Monday, resulting in a total of 1.740bn. 

Online vs offline spending (currency values are in Sterling millions)

Prior to lockdown 2.0, the report found that over a third (37.3%) of UK respondents said they would not shop in-store during Black Friday promotions. This suggests that physical stores would have still seen a shortfall in sales due to lack of consumer confidence regardless of lockdown measures.

However, due to the imposed restrictions in the UK, the research anticipates that offline sales over Black Friday weekend will fall by a staggering 63.7% compared to 2019, from £4.795bn to £1.740bn. 

London is expected to lead the charge with online sales and will also have the biggest share of total spend (£1.312bn) within the UK across the weekend. If areas in Scotland remain out of tier four lockdown by the end of November, Scots are set to spend the most offline, totalling to £362.1m.

Regional Black Friday weekend spending in 2020 breakdown (currency values are in Sterling millions)

While the weekend itself will be popular among shoppers, most retailers will continue their sales within the ‘Black Friday fortnight’.² During this time, sales are expected to hit a total of £23.090bn. Online total spend is forecast to more than double offline sales £15.480bn and £7.610bn respectively.

Anita Naik, Lifestyle Editor at VoucherCodes.co.uk, commented: “The new lockdown measures have certainly shaken the bricks-and-mortar retail sector for a second time this year, and Black Friday will no doubt be a huge missed opportunity for many stores across the UK.

“However, as we know, over the past few years there has been a rapid shift to online shopping and this Black Friday weekend there will be plenty of deals to be found online despite lockdown 2.0. This year we expect to see sales soar across the online retail sector, and this will continue to grow in the run up to Christmas too.

“With so many discounts over the Black Friday weekend, it can be hard to know if you’re definitely getting the best deal for your money. There are tools which can help such as setting up alerts for things you want to buy or using DealFinder by VoucherCodes. The clever browser extension does all the hard work for you and ensures you never miss a deal again.”