Scots set to splash £96m in Cyber Monday frenzy
SCOTS are expected to spend nearly £100million online today as they race to grab a bargain.
Total online sales over the so-called Black Friday weekend are expected to be £74million higher compared with 2019, while high street sales are predicted to fall to £172million, a drop of almost £100million overall.
Statistics from the Centre for Retail Research (CRR) show figures for the Black Friday fourday weekend will likely drop 12.4 per cent. In 2019, total sales amounted to £795.4million, but they are expected to fall this year to £698.8million.
Overall figures show an estimated increase in online sales as the closure of non-essential shops across huge swathes of the country pushes more sales online.
But with shops in many parts of Scotland still open, it is expected shoppers north of the Border will spend the most offline in the UK.
The Shopping for Christmas 2020 report said: ‘ London is expected to lead the charge with online sales and will also have the biggest share of total spend (£ 1.312billion) within the UK across the weekend. If areas in Scotland remain out of Level 4 lockdown by the end of November, Scots are set to spend the most offline, totalling £362.1million.’
The Black Friday weekend includes Black Friday itself, Saturday, Sunday and Cyber Monday, when Scots are expected to spend more than £96million online.
The event will be popular among shoppers and many retailers are expected to continue their sales into a ‘Black Friday fortnight’.
Anita Naik, lifestyle editor at VoucherCodes.co.uk, said: ‘The new lockdown measures have 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 in the UK.
‘However, 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.
‘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.’
Stark images on Friday showed a contrast between the main shopping streets of Glasgow, which remains in Level 4, and Princes Street in Edinburgh, which was packed thanks to its placement in Level 3. Braehead Shopping Centre in Glasgow was also all but deserted as the sales began.
The contrast between Scotland’s two largest cities was illustrated by a boom of sales at John Lewis in the capital by 35 per cent, while its Glasgow store remained shut.
We told on Saturday how small businesses in Glasgow warned the city’s shopping culture will ‘never recover’ from Covid lockdown.
Figures from the Scottish Retail Consortium show that shops lost £2.4billion of sales over the first seven months of lockdown, with footfall on the high street down 40 per cent.