The Pan-European study examined consumers in the UK, France, Netherlands, Spain, Belgium and Germany revealing a high potential for UK merchants to use Black Friday as a sales tactic to promote their brand in diverse markets.
The study shows that 48% of Belgium Black Friday shoppers opt to shop with online retailers that sell international brands. Meanwhile, 40% of French consumers are willing to shop with foreign retailers online during Black Friday sales. In contrast, UK consumers say they prefer to shop with online retailers that sell established brands (31%) during Black Friday – just 6% prefer shopping with stockists of international brands.
As the study suggests, security is required when selling to shoppers outside of the UK. In France, online payment security was found to be the top concern when purchasing across borders (24%), while Spanish shoppers list payment security as the most important factor (23% chose this as their top priority) after affordability on the peak sales day (45%).
In addition, less than half of the UK’s 2,000 respondents (45%) cited discounts as the feature they desire most during the Black Friday online sales. There is also a growing widespread scepticism from almost two thirds of respondents that the discounts are artificial (65%). Over a quarter (27%) would reportedly prefer other incentives such as unique products, loyalty and referral bonuses, an extended returns/ exchange window period or free next-day shipping.
While Amazon is expected to dominate the Black Friday landscape, almost one in every eight (12%) online Black Friday shoppers in the UK prefer to shop with small businesses or niche retailers on Black Friday.
For more information about Ingenico ePayments, please check out a detailed profile of this company in our dedicated, industry-specific online company database.
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