The Black Friday shopping event kicks off today and it comes as a new global survey reveals that 39% of respondents across seven markets intend to make purchases, although their shopping preferences vary.

According to Wirecard, a German financial services provider, around two-thirds (67%) of Brazilian consumers plan to take part in Black Friday promotions, followed by shoppers in the UK and Germany (40% each) and the US (38%).

The survey of almost 3,200 consumers – covering Brazil, Germany, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, the UK and the US – also explored shopping intentions beyond Black Friday for Wirecard’s International Holiday Shopping Report 2018.

It found that Hong Kong is the only market not to have Black Friday as the first preference because consumers there like to take advantage of Boxing Day sales (33%), which is common in some Asian markets.

Although Black Friday is on course to be the most significant shopping event internationally, looking at the holiday season overall, Wirecard revealed that more than three-quarters (77%) of consumers said they expect to try out new stores or websites this year.

Clothing and accessories (58%) emerged as the category most likely to attract the most spending, followed by electronics (56%) and toys and games (38%).

In all countries, the most important factor which would influence a consumer’s decision to shop in-store is price (59%), followed by quality of products (45%) and special offers or discounts (32%).

Importantly, more than two-thirds (68%) of consumers globally said they expect to make their purchases online via desktop, mobile app or mobile site, with just a fifth (18%) expecting to shop in traditional stores.

And 82% of consumers said they were either likely or very likely to combine various channels during the purchasing process, with respondents in Malaysia particularly fond of cross-channel shopping (96%), followed by Brazil (92%).

Finally, consumers reported that they would most like to see mobile payment solutions to improve their buying experience (46%), followed by virtual or augmented reality (26%) and artificial intelligence / machine learning (22%).

Sourced from Wirecard; additional content by WARC staff