'Brexit boost' will see best Black Friday bargains yet – with 60pc discounts on items 

Shoppers can look forward to "best ever" Black Friday deals this year thanks to Brexit, figures suggest, with discounts on goods expected to top 60 per cent on average.

Despite the huge discounts on offer Brits are expected to spend around £2.3 million a minute on Christmas presents in the bargain hunting event this Friday – around a fifth more than last year.

Following the Brexit vote shoppers have become acclimatised to bargain prices, as shops instantly dropped prices on thousands of lines over fears shoppers would tighten their purse strings.

As thousands of home, garden and electronics items are already more heavily discounted than usual it means shops battling for shoppers' attention around Black Friday will have to slash prices even lower than last year, according to discount website lovethesales.com.

Price analysis of millions of items showed 18 per cent of items were on sale in shops the week before the vote, rising by nearly 50 per cent to 26 per cent the following week, where they have remained since.

And as well as more items going on sale, the average discount also grew – by around eight per cent – up from 35 per cent to 39 per cent in the week after the Brexit vote.

Mark Solomon, founder of LovetheSales.com said: “Post Brexit uncertainty has resulted in increased competition between retailers, reflected by more aggressive discounting of inventory. If this trend continues, this Black Friday weekend will be the biggest ever.”

A spokesman for the website added that as Black Friday shoppers usually expect discounts of at least 20 per cent from their previous price, retailers would be forced to further discount items – which already have 40 per cent off – to 60 per cent of the original price.

Shoppers hunting for fashion, beauty and sporting equipment may face disappointment though, as items in these sectors bucked the general trend and saw small increases in price since Brexit. 

Retail experts said that although volume of sale products and the average discount typically increase at the end of June as retailers look to clear Summer stock in anticipation of new Autumn / Winter stock coming in, they usually return to normal after three weeks. 

However this year they did not. Instead the increased discount and volume of products on sale continued until mid-September and even then, it did not return to normal levels.

Retailers' efforts paid off as data from the Office for National Statistics showed consumers' spending was up 1.4 per cent in June.

But ahead of the bonanza later this week shoppers were warned to spend carefully after it emerged that half of last year's Black Friday deals were bogus.

A study published by Which? found that 49 per cent of products "on offer" were cheaper in the months before or after Black Friday. Previous sale prices used as a basis for discounting turned out to be several months old, meaning retailers could claim far bigger savings than was actually the case.

Alex Neill, managing director of home and legal at Which? said: “As Black Friday and Cyber Monday approach, it’s important to do your research so you know your shopping rights before you buy, just in case you change your mind.”