Published Nov 29, 2023
Dirk Pieterse, Enterprise Account Director, Sales & Research EMEA at Toluna
For the third year in a row, Toluna fielded a survey on Black Friday, over 500 people in each of The Netherlands and UK, to see how the US-led phenomenon is impacting the way that consumers shop.
How do ‘we’ Dutch consumers feel about the spectacle of Black Friday? How much did they spend and what did they spend it on? And how did retailers fare? Let’s take a look.
Whereas 56% of Dutch respondents participated in Black Friday shopping in 2022, we’ve seen an increase to 59% in 2023. Among those who participated, nearly half (48%) spent more than last year, versus only 16% who said they spent less.
In terms of shopping channels, the increase in purchases is the result of more people shopping online for Black Friday offers; forty-five percent of Black Friday shoppers made online purchases in 2023, a slight uptick from 40% in 2022. Meanwhile, offline shopping remained flat year-over-year at 28%.
1. Bol 48%
2. MediaMarkt 18%
3. Zalando 16%
4. Amazon 16%
5. Cool Blue 14%
When we look at the most popular product categories on Black Friday, the newcomers to the top five most purchased were ‘sport articles’ and ‘home accessories.’ Meanwhile, the top three most purchased categories—clothing, electronics, and beauty products—were all purchased more than last year. When we look at Black Friday advertisements seen by consumers, beauty advertisements saw a 7% decrease year-over-year.
1. Clothing 48% (+4% YoY)
2. Electronics 32% (+5%)
3. Beauty Products 29% (+3%)
4. Sport Articles 17% (+3%)
5. Home Accessories 17% (+3%)
1. Electronics 61% (+1%)
2. Clothing 59% (+1%)
3. Mobile Phones 42% (-2%)
4. Beauty Products 36% (-7%)
5. Home accessories 34% (-2%)
There are also popular alternatives to Black Friday, such as Green Friday. Green Friday encourages consumers to do something green and avoid buying Black Friday deals to fight back against overconsumption. Fifty percent of Dutch consumers say the idea of Green Friday is appealing to them, a slight increase from 48% in 2022.
If you’d like any further information about this study, please reach out to me or any member of the NL Toluna team. The survey, which we also fielded in the UK, took around a hour to script on our market-leading Toluna Start platform, and it only took 9 hours to complete fieldwork. Whenever you’re in need of agile insight, quality sample, and flexible research support, get in touch!
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