Shoppers to spend £ 300 on Black Friday deals

● US phenomenon was biggest shopping day of last year

Consumers are set to fork out £ 300 each on Black Friday bargains as retailers slash their p r i c e s f o r t h e US s h o p p i n g phenomenon.

R e s e a r c h f r o m T S B s h o we d t h a t n e a r l y 8 0 p e r cent of Brits shopped on last year’s Black Friday weekend, with over 80 per cent of those claiming to have saved an average of nearly £ 100 each. Last year’s Black Friday was the biggest single day for retail sales in the UK.

Meanwhile, s e par a t e dat a out from Amazon has shown that entertainment electronics are top sellers on previous Black Fridays, as well as football video games.

T h e r e p o r t c o m e s a f t e r a W h i c h ? i n v e s t i g a t i o n revealed that six in ten of last year’s Black Friday deals were cheaper or the same price at other times of year.

0 UK consumers will spend an average of £ 300 on Black Friday, following the US retail trend

The TSB repor t found that six in ten people say they are planning to hit the shops or head online t his year, while 4 0 p e r c e n t who p l a n t o g o shopping this weekend have a l r e a dy wri t t e n a s hoppi ng list, and six in ten have a budget in mind.

C r a i g B u n d e l l , d i r e c t o r o f p e r s o n a l c u r r e n t a c c o u n t s at TSB, said: “Christmas can be an expensive time of year so it’s encouraging to see that people can save money by making the most of the Black Friday deals on offer. However, with l ots of deals out there it could be easy for people to push themselves over budget if they don’t plan ahead. A bit of for ward planning and having a specific shopping list could make all the difference.”

T h e Ameri c a n r e t a i l p h e - nomenon– coming on the day after the US Thanksgiving holiday, it marks the start of the Christmas s hopping p eri o d – has grown in popularit y in the UK over the past few years, with Amazon introducing the concept in 2010.

Amazon said that last year’s Black Friday bestseller was its own Fire TV Stick, followed by the Fifa 17 video game. Data stretching back to 2010 found that electronics and tech reign supreme for shoppers. Over the past seven years, gadgets, i ncluding T V media players and e - readers, as well as video games, DVDS and CDS, have taken the lead in the best- sellers list across the site.

Amazon UK countr y mana g e r D o u g G u r r s a i d : “We i n t r o d u c e d B l a c k Fr i d ay i n the UK back in 2010 because we b el i eved t hat customers would be excited by the prospect of getting incredible deals on great gifts just a handful of weeks before Christmas.

“The customer response in that first year confirmed that b e l i e f . Fa s t f o r wa r d s e v e n years and Black Friday is one of the biggest days in the shopping calendar not only here in the UK but also now in many countries around the world.”