REVEALED: How Kilkenny consumers will splash their cash on Black Friday

New data have been released that reveals how Kilkenny consumers splash the cash online during the annual Black Friday splurge.

According to new figures released by AIB, local consumers will fork out 302% more buying clothing online on Black Friday compared to an average day. And they spend 380% more buying electrical goods, many of which will be offered at discounted prices for the now yearly online shopping frenzy.

Overall, the AIB analysis found Irish consumers will spend a whopping €4,500 a minute on clothing during Black Friday – a 364% increase in spend compared to a normal day.

This equates to over 85,000 transactions on clothing websites throughout the day, or approximately one transaction every second.

The data was compiled from over one million card transactions carried out by Irish consumers during Black Friday 2019 and has been anonymised and aggregated.

This Black Friday many retailers will be closed as a result of the level five restrictions, meaning selling online is their main option for reaching customers. AIB looked at online consumer spending for Black Friday 2019 which revealed that:

*Clothing ranks first for consumer spend on Black Friday followed by electrical goods, hardware, health and beauty and jewellery;
*€2,200 was spent a minute online by consumers buying electronics on Black Friday, a 361% increase in spend compared with a normal shopping day;
*Consumers spent an average of €75 per clothing transaction, €119 on electronics, €204 on hardware, €77 on health and beauty and €137 per jewellery transaction on Black Friday;
*The busiest time for online shopping on Black Friday is between 10am and 11am, with the second busiest time being between 9pm and 10pm – almost four transactions are happening every second during these peak hours;
*The busiest time for men shopping online is 10pm on Black Friday, while women are more likely to be shopping online at 10am;
*While Cyber Monday is pitched as the major online shopping day, Black Friday still outperforms it in terms of online sales, with 50% more spent during Black Friday than on Cyber Monday.

Commenting on the bank’s analysis, Rachel Naughton, Head of SME at AIB said: “This year’s Black Friday will be like no other as many Irish businesses will remain closed as a result of the level five restrictions which are currently in place. Our data shows that consumers are spending large amounts of money online every minute of the day during Black Friday, which presents Irish businesses with a unique opportunity during this difficult period. We have seen from working with, and supporting our business customers over the past number of months that many – for the first time – are adapting to sell online. Where possible this Black Friday we ask customers to support their local business, helping these businesses through this difficult period.

“As more people will be shopping online this Black Friday we’re encouraging them to be vigilant as there is always an increase in phishing emails at this time of year, with an estimated 50 million global fraud attempts expected to be attempted this holiday season.”