The final two months of the year are crucial for USA retailers as they can account for anywhere between 20 and 40 percent of annual sales.
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Visa Europe predicts shoppers will spend £721m online on its cards today, up from £616m a year ago.
SUPERMARKETS Morrisons and Tesco are among national chains getting involved with Black Friday today.
Many UK retailers have said online deals will go live from midnight onwards. Ebay expected nine million Britons to visit its website.
The Broadmarsh shopping centre store will open at 9am as usual, alongside other shops in the mall. These include Argos shops and a selection of Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Currys PC World stores.
Black Friday is on its way to becoming the biggest online shopping day in United Kingdom history as consumers shun the high street in search of bargains on the web. Some retailers, such as Asda, are scaling back participation entirely, while others are moving away from a single day flash sale, extending the promotion to ease pressure and spread demand out over a long period.
“It’s my first time doing it, I hope they do it more often”, he said as he waited for the doors to open in front of rows of signs advertising the sales.
Last year, police were called to a number of stores to break up scuffles among shoppers vying for the best deals.
“Black Friday has dramatically changed the way people shop in the run-up to Christmas and has created an expectation of deep discounts that did not exist before”, said James Miller, a senior consultant at Experian.
Consumers association Which? also warned shoppers to be careful.
The new manager of Erneside Shopping Centre Jim Masterson explained that businesses in the centre are once again getting into the “Black Friday” spirit. Boots is one of the high-road marks truly grasping Black Friday.
BLEARY-eyed Black Friday bargain hunters were given team talks before entering a store – the dos and don’ts being “no abuse or violence” and “enjoy yourselves”.
“From the perspective of the amount of discounting that’s going on, the over-inventory situation, it seems like there are going to be a lot of great deals in the next 45 days”, said Bob Drbul, a retail analyst at Nomura Securities International.
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Tesco Plc, the U.K.’s largest retailer, is “very pleased” with how the day is progressing and has witnessed no repeat of the unrest that occurred at some stores past year, according to a company official. “There is no way we can compete with these mega stores, the reason we survive is because we offer local people a local deal throughout the year and not just the one Friday”.
