AIB’s Spend Trend has revealed that this Black Friday is set to be the busiest day for online spend in Ireland’s history, breaking last year’s record.
Black Friday 2023 saw Irish consumers spend €105 million online in almost 1 million transactions, making it the busiest day for online spend ever.
Consumers spent €4.3 million every hour, €73,000 every minute, or €1,200 every second.
The busiest hour was 10am-11am, with more than 57,000 transactions.
Despite high inflation, Black Friday 2023 was 11% busier than the previous year, with 57% of spend taking place online and 43% in-store.
Spend in shops was also up slightly on 2022, rising 1% to €80 million.
Based on this data, AIB predicts that Black Friday 2024 will to be the busiest yet in terms of online spend.
Data
AIB compiled the data from over 979,000 online card transactions by AIB customers during Black Friday 2023, all anonymised and aggregated.
Data provided by AIB features one of the most comprehensive and accurate data sets on consumer spending in Ireland.
Based on the 2023 data, AIB found that spend on clothing ranked highest with €15 million spent on clothes, women (52%) outspent men (48%), and spending was up in every county compared to the previous year with Longford seeing the biggest increase (23%).
It also found that people in Dublin spent the most on average per transaction (€107), followed by Wicklow and Roscommon (both €104), and online spending on Black Friday was 29% higher than Cyber Monday three days later.
Speaking about the data, the head of consumer at AIB Adrian Moynihan said, “Black Friday 2023 broke all records for online spend and indications are that this year will be no different as shoppers hunt for good value ahead of Christmas.
“Spending online was up 11% on the previous year, making it the busiest day for Irish online spend ever.”
On in-store sales, Moynihan said, “Shopping locally helps to lower carbon emissions and supports local communities too so it’s encouraging to see consumers also availed of good deals in store, with approximately €80 million spent in shops.
“This was only a slight increase on the previous year, demonstrating the continuing trend towards online shopping.”
He added a warning for consumers to be mindful, saying, “For those of us who will be buying online this Black Friday, we are urging people to be fraud aware as the number of scams will be on the rise at this time of year.
“Remember, if a deal seems too good to be true, it probably is.”
Stay Safe
To help customers stay safe this Black Friday, AIB has issued tips to shoppers to avoid fraudulent deals.
It advises checking if a bargain is real before purchasing, ensure websites are secure by checking the padlock symbol in the web address bar, beware of texts or calls on the day purporting to be from a bank, delivery service or utility company – call the organisation separately to verify any concerns, never give banking details or passwords and access codes with callers or by text, never take selfies or use biometrics on an unexpected call, and make yourself aware of current frauds by checking the bank’s security centre on its website.
It also advises logging out of websites following purchases, so that someone does not gain access to your account.
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