UK shoppers expect to spend £267 on average over Black Friday and Cyber Monday, down 32% from £390 last year. According to figures from Omnisend’s BFCM 2026 spending predictions.
That’s the biggest fall of the four markets Omnisend surveyed. The US is down 30%, Canada 29% and Australia 17%.
Omnisend estimates total UK spending over the BFCM weekend at £9.9bn, 32% below its estimate for 2025.
More people plan to take part, though. Omnisend found 55% of UK consumers intend to buy something over BFCM, the highest of the four markets, and the share planning to buy nothing at all has dropped from 29.8% to 24.8%.
Bigger orders account for most of the fall. In the UK, US and Canada, Omnisend found around half as many shoppers planning to spend in the top bracket as last year. Spending at the lower and middle levels is forecast to rise.
It’s a continuation of what Amazon saw last month. During Prime Big Deal Days, PMG data showed UK shoppers choosing cheaper products over big-ticket ones and spreading purchases across more everyday categories.
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Clothing and accessories top UK shopping lists at 39%. Tech follows at 36.5%, then toys and games at 31.2% and beauty and self-care at 24.2%. All of the leading categories have slipped since 2025, according to Omnisend.
Across the four markets, discount size is what sways buyers most, picked by 52% to 57% of people Omnisend surveyed. Free delivery came second at 34% to 38%, with time-limited deals and gift bundles on 19% to 26%.
In the UK, 40% of shoppers told Omnisend they’d consider buy now, pay later, level with Australia for the highest share. Just 18% use generative AI to find deals and discount codes, the lowest in the survey.
However spending has picked up since Omnisend’s survey closed in August. BDO’s tracker showed online sales up 10.1% in October, though BDO still described consumers as “cautious and highly price-sensitive”.
Cint ran the research for Omnisend in August 2026. It surveyed 4,363 consumers across the US, UK, Canada and Australia, 1,076 of them in the UK. The sample used quotas on age, gender, income and region, and the margin of error is ±3%.
Omnisend worked out average spend from the midpoints of the spending ranges people picked, so the figures show what shoppers plan to spend rather than what they actually spend.
