UK shoppers spent a record £25.8bn during the golden quarter period, according to Adobe Analytics. 

These spending figures confirm the picture of a thriving online market, offsetting the challenges faced by bricks-and-mortar. Retailers including Next and Marks & Spencer delivered strong festive results, despite in-store sales declining.

Adobe Digital Insights lead analyst Vivek Pandya said strong discounting provided a considerable driver of online sales growth this year.

Average discounts were in the 7.3% range across the season, up from 7% last year. However, increased consumer sensitivity to price drops helped drive the uptick in spending  

“We saw about £220m generated from November to December that were primarily driven just because of that price sensitivity,” said Pandya. 

 

The Adobe data reveals that £12.4bn was spent online in November and £13.4bn in December, with £3.6bn being spent over the Cyber Weekend running from November 29 to December 2. 

Black Friday was the single biggest online spending day of the year as consumers spent £1.12bn on November 29. 

A record £3.6bn was spent using buy now, pay later (BNPL) services, up 9.1% on 2023 figures. With BNPL now accounting for 13.9% of online festive spending, its importance to UK retailers continues to grow.  

Over November and December, £14.5bn was spent on mobile, up 7.4% on last year and making up 56% of total online spend. 

The growing popularity of social media influencers and generative AI, also known as affiliate partners, were also sources of gift inspiration and referral traffic.  

Traffic from generative AI sources more than doubled in this period compared with October, and up 2,600% year on year, highlighting its recent and evolving popularity.  

Overall in 2024, UK consumers spent a record £115.3bn, up 3.7% year on year. 

Average discounts on apparel were as high as 21% at some points during the Black Friday weekend. Big price drops were also seen on computers.  

 

Online apparel spending increased by 51% during the golden quarter versus the October average. This was more than the 23.7% increase in total online spending across all categories.  

“We have a consumer that is willing to spend and is willing to buy, but they have to see the value. They have to see the strength of the discounts across the products,” said Pandya.  

Topics