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Sandra Halliday Published
November 10, 2025
Shoppers love Black Friday, right? And how do retailers feel? Well, some of them love it and others avoid it. At least that’s the received wisdom. But new research suggests the big shopping season comes with huge pain points for both consumers and the retailers that embrace it.
Research by Censuswide on behalf of Visa subsidiary Tink has found that 40% of consumers are less likely to participate in Black Friday this year due to cost of living issues as 64% are cutting back on the amount of non-essential items they buy overall. And 43% of merchants view the mega shopping event merely as a “necessary evil” for their business.
And one of the biggest issues for both groups is returns. Merchants estimate a huge chunk of items ordered last Black Friday were returned and almost a fifth of consumers are concerned about delayed refunds leaving them “at a significant financial shortfall”. But more of that later.
Censuswide spoke to almost 2,000 nationally representative UK consumers and over 500 online merchants in September. Its findings included over half (56%) of consumers expecting to spend less over the festive season as a whole.
Merchants acknowledge this cause for concern, as half (49%) anticipate a weak peak season, while one in four (27%) are worried about bankruptcy or insolvency.
It’s interesting that “consumers are steadily more sceptical of the value [Black Friday] provides”. Some 34% are less likely to participate because they already get regular discounts throughout the year. And 48% of retailers say the discounts they offer during Black Friday aren’t significantly better than other times of the year, we’re told.
That said, as many as 46% of merchants say that Black Friday “puts their margins under significant pressure” and 43% say it no longer delivers the business benefit it once did. But they feel they have to take part.
So what about the big returns problem? The research also showed returns and refunds coming with issues. One big issue is that 46% of merchants said customers are returning “more items than ever before”.
And they estimate that almost a third (31%) of items ordered on Black Friday were returned last year. Based on consumer estimates that they spent an average of £472 last Black Friday, Tink’s research suggests that on average almost £150 (£146.40) of each order was returned.
Merchants themselves (33% of them) identified the slow pace of getting customers’ money back to them as a pain point and 19% of consumers are seriously worried about the impact on their finances.
With the strong awareness of the negative experience around returns, it’s no surprise that 28% of merchants plan to invest more in their returns processes.