Black Friday casts its spell over consumers
NEARLY one in four people feel under pressure to spend money on Black Friday, research suggests.
Some 23% of shoppers said they feel under pressure to buy something on the discount day, with clothing, coffee machines and gadgets among the top Black Friday shopping regrets.
The study by Gumtree found women (24%) are more likely to feel pressured to buy something on Black Friday compared to men (22%), spending £59.06 each on average. Despite this, men in fact spend more, with each man splashing out £63.80 on average.
More than one in 10 (12%) buy items on Black Friday only to find they already have something similar at home, the survey found, while 13% said they end up forgetting about their purchases during the shopping bonanza.
Black Friday falls on November 24 this week, although many retailers are already offering “special deals”.
Across Britain, people in the West Midlands are the biggest Black Friday spenders, the research suggests, forking out nearly £79 on average.
Those in the South-West of England were found to spend the least, at around £39 typically, the survey of more than 2,000 people found.
People in Wales spend £59.52 on average.
Hannah Wilson, head of marketing at Gumtree, said the company estimates from the findings that as much as £855m was “wasted” on Black Friday purchases last year that Britons either do not use or do not remember buying.
She said: “That’s a huge sum of money, with almost a quarter of festive shoppers parting with their hard-earned cash because they felt pressured to buy the items on offer.”
Financial expert Jasmine Birtles said of Gumtree’s findings: “It is possible to ‘win’ at Black Friday but only if you’re strict with yourself and only buy things that you were going to purchase anyway and you know what price it should be.
“Just wandering into shops or browsing through websites on the Black Friday weekend could lead you into buying things you don’t need or want.”