Are you a wise Black Friday shopper?

Black Friday is upon us. And whether you care about it or not, you’re going to hear about it. Like the time everyone was telling me how their air fryer changed their life.

Anyway, it turns out, most people believe Black Friday is a scam to get us to spend more money. It also turns out, most people still buy something during the shopping event. Guilty.

Wise loves nothing more than helping you fabulous citizens of the world get the most out of your money. Hidden fees? Be gone. Hefty subscriptions? Don’t @ us. Marked up prices? Lol, as if.

So, since it looks like a lot of us will be tapping our cards and clicking on our shopping baskets this spending season, I’m going to help you understand the day of deals and become a wise shopper. Get it? Do you get my pun there? Thank you.

Take that 4-year-long literature degree. You’ve come in handy. I think.

I’ll cover

• A global spending breakdown
• The politics of queueing, why we do it and if it’s worth it
• The shift to online spending
• If you’re actually getting a deal or being duped

Get wise with your money first

A Black Friday spending breakdown

Thanks to a community of data detectives, we’re going to take a look at how people spend around the world, whether it’s www or IRL.

The detectives🕵️

• Statista
• Queue.it
• TIDIO
• Finder
• Meteor space
• Driveresearch
• Which?

Who’s bargain hunting offline? 🛍️

In the first quarter of 2023 alone, internet users were glued to the online world for six hours and forty minutes a day. So, naturally Black Friday shopping will contribute to our screen time following our ecommerce shift. But in-store shopping is still preferable for some people.

A survey across 17 countries In 2022 found Austrians, the French and the Irish to be the keenest to walk into a shop. Whereas, the Italians, Germans and Swedes favoured online.

The USA and UK were also in the bottom five, which is surprising given the tabloids always show Brits and Americans arguing in queues and occasionally chucking a TV through a shop window.

How Americans spend 🇺🇸

I hinted to it at the start of our journey together, but 62% of buyers in the States believe it to be a scam, even though 80% of them will still shop during Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

According to The Wall Street Journal and Queue.it, in 2021, the amount spent reached around $1.27 trillion dollars, with the average spend sitting at $325 per person. And four out of ten of shoppers said they’d be ok with acquiring debt using their credit cards to make sure they grab a “deal” before it’s “gone.” I’ll get to why I’ve placed those quotation marks later on. Also, please imagine me doing air quotes while you read it. Thanks.

Debt aside, 39% of people said they save up for their purchases. I believe they also said they did this using Wise Jars. Ok, they didn’t say that, but they should have.

47% of people buy items they have their eye on for a while and 55% prefer shopping online, 30% offline and 14% didn’t want to go at all.

How the UK spends 🇬🇧

UK residents are predicted to spend over £3 billion this upcoming Cyber Monday and Black Friday. BRB just starting a gofundme page convincing them to spend on me instead.

That hefty figure will be reached thanks to 51% of the population shopping and the average person spending £113. That being said, 79% of Gen Z's are going to hit the sales with a predicted spend of £176.

In-person shopping? That’s so yesterday 💻

There’s no denying that online shopping has a ton of benefits. You can do it in your PJ’s, you're spoiled with variety and you can buy embarrassing things without anybody having to know. No? Just me? Oh.

A con being ordering stuff that doesn’t fit, forgetting to return it, and unwillingly building a “so close but so far away” mountain in the back of your wardrobe. Also just me? Oh.

Most Black Friday spending takes place on the world wide web, down to the ease of it all. A lot of people don’t want to queue, but I’ll get to that later too.

Funnily enough (it’s not really funny but I needed a segue) 64% of people would rather have a discount code that’s only valid on Black Friday and only 30% preferred a 15% discount they could use anytime.

Last year’s shopping extravaganza saw 130 million people visiting US online stores over the weekend with sales hitting $9.12 billion in America.

Of course, Black Friday is all about the “deals” (there I go again) but free and fast delivery, and online reviews were equally considered by people.

You may think that shopping online makes you exempt from queuing. I have some bad news for you…

It doesn’t.

To queue or not to queue? That is the question 🤔

Virtual queues are real people. Very real. You may find yourself stuck in an online queue before checking out. But, the benefit of sitting in an online queue is there's no pushing, standing in the cold outside a department store and you can rock your PJs.

When it comes to in-store shopping, ​eight out of ten customers would rather have access to booking an online appointment slot to avoid crowds in shops. 80% of people are only ok with a 30-minute queue time and that figure drastically falls with Gen-Zers who aren’t willing to spend more than ten minutes in a line. Millennials, like myself, were the most likely to stay in a queue for over 50 minutes. Not like myself.

But some people love to queue. You read that correctly.

Viva la line 💃

The New York Times spoke to psychologists about why people willingly line up for ages. There are a few reasons;

• Some families and friends see it as a ritual or tradition, and the hours-long wait times are perfect for bonding.
• It evokes the competitive, animalistic side in people.
• The limited time period of Black Friday and Cyber Monday plants a “I have to get this now” seed in shoppers' heads and gets them excited.
• Long waiting times can fill people with a sense of achievement when they finally reach the checkout.

Deal or no deal? 💰

According to Which?, 60% of shoppers regret what they bought. Oh dear. The excitement, time stamp and sense of scoring a deal are to blame for impulsive purchases.

Which? is a UK organisation that reviews products and services and compares prices across the board, to help people with their purchasing decisions.

They compared tens of thousands of prices from before 2021’s Black Friday Event event and after, finding that 98% of alleged deals were cheaper or the exact same price at other points in the year. They found that none of the products they examined were their cheapest during Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

To summarise: do your research. There are tools and services like Which? all over the world. Sadly, false advertising is rampant. And the same applies to false claims over the cost of sending money abroad. Something Wise tuts at.

The final frontier on your wisdom quest 😘

You know about queues, you know about deals and steals, and you know how and why we shop when prices drop.

There’s a chance your bargain hunting will take place at different times of the year now, but finding a good deal only makes sense if your card’s on the same page as you. A lot of banks and payment providers hide fees from their customers. Even when claiming “low or no” fees in their advertising, their Terms and Conditions prove otherwise. It’s pretty easy to hide an exchange rate fee in the small print, and over 97% of people don’t read them.

As you probably guessed, Wise isn’t a fan of that. So when you’re buying online from an international seller we make sure you’re not overpaying.

+160 countries. +40 currencies. One card. Unlimited amazingness.

Enticed? Nice. Check out our Terms of Use and Wise Fees & Pricingpages for a regional, up-to-date breakdwon of pricing and fee information.

Let’s do thist