Why this Black Friday was great for UK hospitality

The shopping frenzy has momentarily calmed down after Black Friday, and businesses from ecommerce to hospitality are now counting their takings to see if it lived up to their hopes.

Good news, a report from Barclays suggests that Black Friday was the busiest day of the year so far for retailers; with transactions on November 28 reaching a 2025-high, and up 62% on the average.

Encouragingly, hospitality businesses, among which confidence has been reported to be low for months, have also enjoyed a boom off the back of the sales, with customers rushing to their high streets to grab a bargain.

Sales draw the crowds

The Barclays report, which saw 2,000 UK adults surveyed between October 24-28, revealed that food and drink transactions saw a Black Friday boost of 28.9% versus the average day this year.

This reflected an increase in footfall, which was supported by data from MRI Software. It shared that UK retail destinations saw a 6.7% boost in visitors in the week of Black Friday as compared to the week before.

This broke down to an 8.2% increase in high street visits, a 6% boost for shopping centres and a 4.1% rise in footfall to retail parks.

Jenni Matthews, senior brand, PR and content manager at MRI, said: “We’ve seen two solid weeks of rising footfall heading into Black Friday, and the energy was unmistakable, particularly between 5pm and 8pm on the day itself, when visits jumped 29.2% week on week as shoppers combined bargain-hunting with festive nights out.”

Confidence still wavering

However, the Barclays report did also reveal that consumers are still nervous of big spending as the cost-of-living crisis rumbles on. This means that Black Friday, while a chance to get a bargain, is not perhaps as exciting as in easier times.

The data revealed a 2.2% decrease in sales for the sales week and 1.9% on Black Friday, as compared to last year. Nearly half (44%) of respondents said that they do not look forward to the day as much as they used to.

Some even questioned the value of Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals with 68% saying that they are doubtful deals are as good as they seem to be.

The results also show that consumers are conscious of over-buying, with 65% stating that they think these sales events encourage unnecessary spending.

Online the big winner

While the MRI Software data painted a positive picture for Black Friday footfall as compared to the week before the sales started, the team also zoomed out and discovered that visitor numbers were down on the previous year.

While it wasn’t a dramatic drop – 2% on Black Friday and 7.2% for the week as a whole – this reflects that the ease of online is still compelling for many shoppers. That and people are still being cautious about spending money.

KPMG confirmed that consumer spending – off and online – is still soft, despite moments of buoyancy. The consultancy has predicted GDP growth of 1% for 2026 and 1.4% for 2027.

“The outlook for growth in 2026 is subdued, reflecting the impact of a cooling labour market and weak household spending,” KPMG’s chief economist, Yael Selfin, told The Guardian.

With confidence still low, and most hospitality businesses expecting a larger tax burden this coming year after the Autumn Budget, many businesses will now be hoping that customers will continue to head to the high street this December.

Despite declining optimism, they will need to catch the attention of those customers who do head out and take advantage of the increased footfall even if it doesn’t hit last year’s figures.