Expected to reach 12 billion U.S. dollars, Cyber Monday is the shopping day with the highest e-commerce sales revenue in the United States in 2023. Black Friday ranks second, with over nine billion dollars in online revenue according to the latest forecasts.

Spanish consumers plan to spend roughly 280 euros on Black Friday purchases in 2023. This is slightly more than the previous year. Over two-thirds of Spanish consumers planned to shop for Christmas gifts on Black Friday.

While in 2022, consumers in the United States spent on average 390.19 U.S. dollars during the Black Friday period, this figure is set to rise in 2023, with consumers saying they will likely spend more.

Apparel and accessories was the e-commerce category with the highest share in total retail sales in the United States as of February 2023. 18.3 percent of all retail sales in the fashion segment were generated online. The category with the second-highest percentage of retail sales in the U.S. was furniture, at 15.7 percent. At the other end of the spectrum, office equipment and supplies had the lowest share of retail sales, below two percent.

The continuous rise of e-commerce

Online shopping is on the rise in the United States. The share of all retail sales in the U.S. stemming from online shopping has increased from 4.2 percent in the first quarter of 2010 to a record-breaking 15.6 percent in the third quarter of 2023. Consequently, the sales of retail e-commerce have surged from 39 million U.S. dollars in the first quarter of 2010 to more than 280 billion U.S. dollars in the third quarter of 2023. This boom is forecast to continue over the next few years, with the estimated revenue from online sales, including digital services, reaching 1.72 trillion U.S. dollars by 2027.

The king of e-commerce

In the United States, the number of online shoppers continues to grow. In 2023, there were more than a quarter of a million online shoppers, and the number is forecast to reach over 300 million by 2028. The most popular online shopping destination in the U.S., Amazon, sees a surge of shoppers during certain shopping occasions, which feature appealing bargains that encourage extravagant spending. In 2023, the biggest increase in sales occurred on Black Friday, with an increase of nearly 35 percent. Amazon's deal event for Prime members, Prime Day, saw 17 percent more sales. As for Cyber Monday, sales went up by 13 percent.

In the Netherlands, consumers intending to participate in Black Friday expected to spend an average of roughly 330 euros during the holiday shopping event in 2022, which is a significant increase compared to the previous year. Compared to four years earlier, average per capita spending among Dutch shoppers has increased by 100 euros.

In 2023, consumers indicated that their main reason for Black Friday purchases was to buy Christmas presents for friends and loved ones. In fact, close to two-thirds of surveyed consumers said they take advantage of Black Friday to get a head-start on Christmas gift shopping. Still, roughly a third of survey respondents use the occasion for self-gifting.

In 2023, less than 15 percent of surveyed consumers in the Netherlands believed they would spend less on Black Friday in comparison to how much they spent in 2022. Nearly two-thirds of Dutch shoppers believed their spending habits would not change.

In 2024, holiday retail sales in the United States were forecast to reach about 979.5 billion U.S. dollars. This figure was given as a conservative value; retail sales over the holiday season was projected to be between 979.5 billion U.S. dollars to 989 billion U.S. dollars in 2024. Holiday retail sales have risen substantially since the turn of the century, with holiday retail sales amounting to approximately 416 billion U.S. dollars back in 2002. Holiday retail sales are a fraction of total retail sales in the United States which were around seven trillion U.S. dollars in 2023. Holiday season e-commerce is also on the rise, with increasing numbers of retailers and consumers going digital. What makes up the winter holiday season in the United States? The winter holiday season includes shopping occasions such as Thanksgiving weekend - which is made up of Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, and Cyber Monday, Super Saturday – the last Saturday before Christmas, and Christmas itself. Thanksgiving weekend is a very popular time for consumers to partake in holiday shopping. In 2022, over 100 million U.S. consumers shopped on Black Friday. Leading companies in U.S. retail The domestic retail market in the United States is very competitive, with many companies recording substantial retail sales. Walmart, a retail chain offering low prices and a wide selection of products, is the leading retailer in the United States. Amazon, The Kroger Co., Costco, and Target are a selection of other leading U.S. retailers.

This statistic shows the value of spending over the course of the Black Friday weekend (from Friday to Cyber Monday) in the United Kingdom (UK) from 2016 to 2023, with a forecast for 2024, broken down by online and offline spending. Consumers are expected to spend a total of over nine billion British pounds over the course of the Black Friday weekend in 2024, nearly five billion of which will be spent in stores.

Price increases were a major factor in the decision of consumers in the United Kingdom planning to spend less on Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2024 than in the previous year. One third of people spending less or not at all than 2023 said it was because prices have increased too much. This is likely linked to the second most common answer, that people needed to cut back to be able to afford essentials.

According to a survey, over 50 percent of consumers in Spain planned to spend at least 200 euros during Black Friday in 2024. More than a third of Spanish shoppers plan to spend between 200 and 499 euros in the mega sale event in 2024.

In 2024, it has been forecast that online shoppers in Germany will spend 5.9 billion euros around the Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales. This is unchanged compared to the previous year.

Data on the 2023 edition of the Amazon Black Friday shopping event showed that the actual shopping day usually registered the most outstanding performance. Compared to the average sales of previous week, Black Friday sales increased by 203 percent in Germany. However, the increase was the lowest in Italy, where online sales incresed by 77 percent on Black Friday.

In 2023, the majority (41 percent) of Black Friday shoppers in the United States reported to expecting to spend their money on Amazon during the sale day. Another 25 percent said they expected to spend at Walmart on Black Friday, while 8 percent cited retailer sites as their expected spending channel for the shopping day.

No other day in the year represents the set phrase “shopping spree” better than Black Friday. Originated in the United States, the popularity of the Friday after Thanksgiving Day has skyrocketed in the world over the past years, and Spain is no exception to this global trend. According to the latest surveys, about 65 percent of the Spaniards that were intending to take part in this shopping event in 2024 were interested in buying fashion products. In the fashion industry, Inditex was by far the largest fashion company by revenue in Spain in 2023. Black Friday in Europe With only a few exceptions, the participation rate on Black Friday only increased across Europe between 2017 and 2018, with Romania topping the list with about 71 percent of consumers that took part in 2018. Ukraine is, in contrast, the European country that least participated in this shopping event at slightly over 30 percent of consumers, although this figure represents quite a leap from a shy 18.6 percent registered the previous year. In terms of discount rates, the list is led by the United Kingdom, with an average discount rate of 63 percent off all products for sale in 2018. That same year, Spain featured an average discount rate of 47 percent. The importance of Black Friday in the fashion industry Black Friday has become an extremely important event for the world’s leading retailers. In Spain, for instance, the sales of fashion and luxury items on Black Friday is over 400 percent higher than any other day of the year, representing one of the highest percentage changes across Europe. Generally speaking, the fashion industry has experienced a gradual increase in the number of online shoppers over the last few years, reaching 13.5 million online shoppers in 2022 as opposed to only 5.5 million in 2014.

In 2024, around 63 percent of people in Germany were planning to spend about the same amount of money as the year before on Black Friday. 26 percent of people were planning to spend less. The figures are based on an online survey conducted in Germany.

Online was the favorite purchase channel during Black Friday in Spain in 2024, with more than half of survey respondents planning to shop exclusively digitally. An omnichannel purchase experience was preferred among Spanish consumers over one exclusively in physical stores. Is Black Friday big in Spain? Black Friday is a well-known event in Spain. The European country had one of the highest awareness rates of the mega sales event, with more than 90 percent of Spaniards knowing about it. The popularity of Black Friday in Spain is surpassed by the USA, where awareness is the highest, by only 2 percentage points. Spending behavior during Black Friday Black Friday was not only well-known in Spain, but also led to purchase decisions. Roughly half of consumers planned to buy something during the event in 2023. The online channel experienced particularly high growth, with the number of online transactions at Amazon almost doubling in 2023 during the mega sales event. More than half of buyers intended to spend at least 200 euros during Black Friday, and only 6 percent less than 50 euros. Among buyers, men expected to spend more than women during the 2023 event.

In 2023, over 50 percent of Black Friday shoppers in the United Kingdom (UK) reported to expecting to spend their money on Amazon during the sale day. Another 16 percent said they expected to spend on retailer sites of their choice on Black Friday, while six percent cited branded sites as their expected spending channel for the shopping day.

In 2023, an increased number of consumers said they expected to make cuts to their non-food product purchases during the holiday season, which includes sales events like Black Friday as well. In the U.S., this share was at 73 percent, while in the previous year around 60 percent of those surveyed said they would reduce their spending for such expenses. In the UK, as high as 79 percent of consumers expected to spend less or delay their non-food related purchases this holiday season.

Men were expected to spend more than women during Black Friday 2023 in Spain. On average, male consumers expected to spend 175 euros during the Black Friday shopping event that year.