Black Friday – the Friday following Thanksgiving in the US – has become the biggest day for retail spend in the year. And 2015 is set to be the biggest yet, according to Max Templeman from GfK in his seminar at BLE 2015.
Last year consumers in the UK spent £375 million during the week of Black Friday (week 48), which was up 23% on figures in 2013. This year Max Templeman, senior account manager at GfK, predicts that 2015 will be even bigger.
“We’ve seen year on year increases not just in the total retail value, but also the increase in ticket price,” says Max. “Consumers are buying big ticket items during the Black Friday sales. And we expect to see another increase in 2015.”
Large screen TVs (43in – 49in) and extra large screen TVs (over 50in) are the most popular product, with an increase of sales of 50% from 2013 to 2014.
Max’s presentation at BLE also included figures about subscription video on-demand (SVoD), illustrating the growth in this media, especially among young adults (16- 34 years) with 51% of people in this group having access to on-demand subscription video.
Netflix is the number one subscription service, followed by Amazon and Now TV. Most users access these services through smartphones, followed by laptops.
“There is a lot of US content coming to the UK through video subscription services,” says Max. “In terms of licensing, it’s an important (and growing) medium for our clients to take into consideration.”
