Black Friday and Cyber Monday are still major dates in the retail calendar, but British shoppers are approaching the 2026 sales with a healthy dose of caution.
According to new research from YouGov, fewer than one in four British adults, 23%, expect to make a purchase during Black Friday or Cyber Monday this year. Among those likely to take part, 40% expect to spend roughly the same as last year, while almost twice as many expect to spend less. The estimated average spend is £206, with a median of £175.
The route to winning a sale has become more demanding. Shoppers are not short of offers. What they need is confidence that an offer is genuinely worth acting on. Increasingly, some will turn to AI to help them work that out.
Visibility and a big discount may get a brand into consideration, but clear information, credible pricing and reassurance will help it stay there.
Shopping intent is much stronger among younger audiences. Almost a third of Gen Z and Millennials, 31%, expect to shop the sales, compared with 16% of Gen X and Baby Boomers+. Men and women show almost identical levels of intent, at 22% and 23% respectively.
There is also a generational difference in spending expectations. Some 12% of Gen Z and Millennial shoppers expect to spend more than last year, compared with 5% of Gen X and Baby Boomers+. Even so, the overall picture remains cautious, and 34% of likely shoppers do not yet know whether their spending will rise, fall or stay the same.
For marketers, this is a reminder not to treat Black Friday shoppers as one audience with one motivation. Some will have a carefully prepared list. Others will be waiting to see what stands out. Some will respond to price, while others may care more about quality, convenience, delivery or confidence that they are buying the right product.
Campaign planning should reflect those differences. Audience segmentation, tailored messages and a connected mix of paid media, organic content, email and on-site experiences will be more useful than pushing the same blanket discount everywhere.
The most revealing finding in YouGov’s research is that the biggest frustration is not finding an offer. It is knowing whether that offer can be trusted.
Nearly half of likely Black Friday shoppers, 47%, say determining whether a discount is genuine is difficult. That puts it comfortably ahead of finding the best deal at 38%, deciding whether to buy now or wait at 30%, and comparing prices between retailers at 29%.
If the price looks too good to be true, shoppers may simply spend more time checking it. And when multiple retailers are making similar claims, the brands that explain their value most clearly have a better chance of earning the sale.
Marketers should make proof part of the campaign, not an afterthought. That could include:
Urgency still has a role, but it should not come at the expense of clarity. “Buy now” becomes much more persuasive when the customer can quickly understand why buying now makes sense.
Britain currently sits towards the bottom of the 19 international markets surveyed by YouGov for AI-assisted shopping. Only 15% of British adults say they have used an AI tool to help them shop. By comparison, adoption stands at 54% in Saudi Arabia and 50% in India.
AI interest is rising: 34% of likely Black Friday shoppers expect to use it in 2026, up from 19% in 2025 - a 15-percentage-point increase.
AI is becoming another layer in a much broader discovery and decision-making journey. As we explored in our article on how AI is changing online discovery, people now move between search engines, retailer websites, social platforms, video, marketplaces and AI assistants depending on what they need. For Black Friday, AI may become particularly useful in the middle of that journey, when shoppers are trying to make sense of several competing offers.
British shoppers appear comfortable with AI acting as a research assistant. They are far less interested in handing over control of the purchase itself.
Among likely Black Friday and Cyber Monday shoppers:
For now, AI’s greatest influence sits in research, comparison and validation rather than checkout.
AI may be gaining ground, but retailer websites and familiar research channels remain central to Black Friday planning.
Some 82% of likely shoppers are confident that checking retailer websites or apps themselves will help them find the best deal. Confidence stands at 72% for online marketplaces, 68% for search engines and 70% for price comparison, coupon or cashback services. AI tools sit behind every other measured channel at 47%.
Traditional search remains highly important, but consumers increasingly move between multiple sources when discovering, comparing and checking information. AI is more likely to sit alongside these channels than replace them completely.
Your website, product feeds, paid search, organic visibility, social activity, email marketing, reviews and marketplace presence still have important roles to play. As our earlier review of online behaviour also found, journeys are increasingly fragmented and mobile-led, which makes joined-up messaging across channels more important.
The same concerns shoppers have about Black Friday offers also shape the way they view AI. Among existing AI shoppers, 48% are concerned about receiving biased or sponsored recommendations, while 42% worry about inaccurate or outdated information. The figures among people considering AI shopping are very similar, at 45% and 41% respectively.
When asked what would increase their comfort, current AI shoppers place the greatest value on:
This gives marketers a useful view of the information shoppers increasingly expect from brands. If product information is vague, inconsistent or buried behind complicated pages, it becomes harder for customers to assess and harder for AI systems to represent accurately. If the offer terms are clear, product details are structured and claims can be supported, a brand has a better chance of being understood, compared and trusted.
Comparison pages, gift guides, FAQs, buying guides and clear product summaries can help customers move from interest to decision. The same content can also give search engines and AI assistants clearer information to work with.
Check that prices, availability, specifications and delivery promises are consistent across your website, advertising feeds, marketplaces and social channels. During a time-sensitive sales event, outdated details can quickly undermine confidence.
Younger shoppers show greater overall shopping intent, but older shoppers have a particularly strong need for reassurance about genuine discounts. Segment creative and messaging around those motivations rather than assuming every group responds to the same sales language.
A shopper may use AI to build a shortlist, then visit a retailer directly, search for a specific product or return through a paid ad. AI can influence the decision without appearing as the final source of the sale.
Paid social can create awareness. Search can capture intent. Reviews and useful content can offer reassurance. Your website can then turn that confidence into action.
Our wider Black Friday marketing guide covers the practical campaign foundations, including audience segmentation, cross-channel messaging, landing pages, email, social media and measurement.
The main lesson from YouGov’s 2026 research is that most shoppers still want to browse familiar channels, compare the options themselves and make the final decision. What is changing is the support they expect along the way.
AI can help people make sense of an increasingly noisy sales period. It can compare products, track prices, summarise reviews and challenge whether a discount is quite as good as it first appears. But those answers will only be as useful as the information available to support them.
For marketers, the priority should be to make the brand easy to find, easy to understand and easy to trust wherever that research happens. That means clear offers, accurate product information, useful content and a consistent experience from the first ad or search result through to checkout.
Get those foundations right and you will be better placed to reach cautious shoppers, support AI-assisted discovery and turn Black Friday interest into meaningful sales.
Whether you need to sharpen your campaign strategy, develop stronger creative, improve search and AI visibility or connect your paid, organic and on-site activity, our team can help. Get in touch today.
The findings and statistics in this article are based on research conducted by YouGov into British shopping behaviour ahead of Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2026.