New Black Friday spending figures show e-commerce surging ahead of the high street

The statistics show that e-commerce in November rose by 4.1% compared with the same month last year.

However, high street spending declined by -1.5% over the same period, while overall spending saw a modest increase of 1.1% on the year.

Kevin Jenkins, UK & Ireland Managing Director Visa Europe said:

“All eyes were on Black Friday but spending for November as a whole confirms the trends we saw at the tail end of the month.

“Online spending surged, driven by double digit spend increases on the big weekend amid continued appetite for mobile, laptop and tablet shopping.

“The high street as a whole suffered a disappointing month, though our data suggests a flat, rather than declining performance on Black Friday itself.

“How long it takes for a Christmas stampede and how much appetite consumers have left following days of discounting should emerge in the next few days.

“It’s already clear though that the big winners this year were retailers who got their integrated offering right.

“Face-to-face wasn’t all doom and gloom in November though and winners on the high street did emerge.

“Brits tucked into meals and a tipple after shopping as hotels, bars and restaurants saw spending leap another 8.5% year on year.

“And the appetite for entertainment remains strong as we enter pantomime season with a 4.8% jump in recreation and culture spend.”

Responding to the findings, UK businesses owners gave their take on the previous months’ performance.

Quan Nguyen, of Chi Café, London said: “We’ve had a very strong November, with customers treating themselves to generous orders and spending more on the food that they enjoy.

“Revenue has been boosted by orders for Christmas office lunches and we hope to see an increase in business as more people arrange meals to catch up with their loved ones over the festive period.”

While in Birmingham, Imogen Hawthorne of Paisley Immy Cakes added: “November has surpassed our expectations and we’ve already had double the number of Christmas bookings that we received last year.

“Stir-up Sunday reminded many of our regulars to order their festive treats and some have even splashed out on extravagant cakes with extra tiers for their guests.

Visa Europe is a payments technology business owned and operated by member banks and other payment service providers from 38 countries.