TikTok Shop UK had a strong Black Friday, beating last year’s peak by 45% and increasing sales by 50% across the four-day period. TikTok didn’t release the full sales figures, but said that Friday 28 November was the highest-grossing in the platform’s UK history.
The company claimed 27 items were sold every second — which by my maths means roughly 2.3m items sold on Black Friday. The amount of advertising revenue was also its highest ever, with retail ad revenue growing 70%.
The event gave an uplift to live shopping on the platform, with TikTok reporting a 68% jump in live shopping sales over the four-day period. QVC UK was highlighted by TikTok as reflecting this trend; its 10-hour ‘Black Friday Eve’ event was QVC’s most successful day of trade ever on the platform.
QVC’s example will buoy retailers’ hopes that live shopping, which is well-established in Asia-Pacific, will finally take-off in Europe.
The uplift makes TikTok one of the few bright spots in what was otherwise a rather slack Black Friday for UK retailers. Barclays said transaction volumes were 62.5% higher than an average day, but figures for the month shows that the event failed to give the economy the boost many were hoping for.
According to the British Retail Consortium, overall sales were only moderately up on last November and that was largely propped up by higher food spending. Food sales rose 3% year-on-year — worth noting that’s still below the rate of inflation — while non-food sales grew just 0.1%.
Kelly Creaby, head of retail customer success at Nielsen IQ, called this year’s Black Friday event ‘subdued and disappointing’. She added: ‘For the first time in a Black Friday event, we have seen sales declines across nearly all categories within Tech & Durables, with only Personal Care showing growth (+4%), despite retailers increasing the number of discounts.
‘Economic uncertainty and low consumer confidence mean UK households are prioritising essentials over discretionary purchases.’
In the US, the story was dramatically different. Adobe Analytics found Americans spent a record $11.8bn on Black Friday, a 9.1% jump on last year. TikTok surged there too, reporting more than $500m in US sales over the four-day weekend, a five-fold increase year-on-year.
Impressive as TikTok’s figures may be, it’s worth keeping scale in mind. Amazon doesn’t release official Black Friday numbers, but Yahoo Finance estimates the e-commerce giant generated between $2bn and $3bn on the Friday alone, so take that as a reminder of just how far ahead the incumbent still sits.
