Black Friday boosts consumer spend

The Visa Europe: UK Expenditure Index found spending rose 2.0% on an annual basis in November, while month-on-month growth reached 1.4% – the highest monthly increase this year.

With another month of buoyant consumer spending in the books, household expenditure remains on track for its strongest annual performance since 2010.

Gareth Johnson MP, a Vice Chair of the Retail All Party Parliamentary Group said:

“Black Friday is a fairly new concept in the UK but it is good to see a boost for retail sales. At Bluewater in my constituency of Dartford, thousands of people work in retail, so these figures are really positive for our area.”

The Visa Europe: UK Expenditure Index is based on spending on all Visa debit, credit and prepaid cards which are used to make an average of over 1.9 billion transactions every quarter and account for £1 in £3 of all UK spending.

The Index adjusts these data spending figures for a variety of factors and provides a robust indicator of consumer expenditure.

There was good news for retailers who slashed prices on Black Friday to lure consumers to the high street.

Face-to-Face expenditure reached 3.0% in November, the second strongest figure since July 2010.

Partly because of this shift to bricks and mortar retailers, spending via Online channels was down (-0.2%) on the month, although at a slower rate than October’s contraction (-1.5%).

November was another positive month for Restaurants & Bars as spending registered an increase of 10.7%.

But Clothing and Footwear retailers will be particularly pleased as sales grew for the first time since August (+1.4%), rebounding from poor figures in October and September when unseasonably warm weather had put consumers off buying winter clothes.