Hitwise study reveals details of the travel Black Friday shopper

Analysis finds 4.3m people searching for deals, up 34% year-on-year Continue reading →

Travel saw a slight shift away from the January February peak selling period thanks to increased activity during Black Friday in November.

The latest Cyber Week analysis from Hitwise shows 4.3 million people searched for a Black Friday deal last month, a 34% year on year increase.

The travel vertical was seen to double its Black Friday traffic with the bulk of the traffic being concentrated in the south of England and London.

The Hitwise data also reveals that the average deal hunter is older and more evenly split between the two genders as Black Friday nears.

Traditionally Black Friday has attracted younger male audience and this was the case in October this year in the run up to Black Friday.

Despite the discounting message the period also tends to attract shoppers with higher personal income of £50,000 a year plus.

On Black Friday itself travel was a 14% increase in industry share growth in web visits, the same as fashion. In November travel was up 13% behind fashion on 15% but ahead of electronics on 10%.

In terms of growth year on year travel was easily the biggest mover with 99% increase in visits, with fashion up 24% and electronics down 13%.

Black Friday travel shoppers were 43% more likely to come from London and 16% from Scotland but 19% less likely to be from the northeast.

They were also more likely to be female and in the 18-24 age bracket. Travel Black Friday audiences were more likely to visit research sites at the start of the month.

But by the end of November shoppers were more likely to respond to flash sales on OTA, airline and hotel sites.

A copy of the report can be downloaded for free from the Hitwise site.