Exclusive: Aliexpress has emerged as the winner of Brits’ Black Friday shopping sprees as traffic to the Chinese retailer more than doubled this year.
Alibaba-owned Aliexpress.com catapulted into Brits’ most popular Black Friday shopping sites with an increase in visits by over 140% over Black Friday and across the promotional weekend ending on Cyber Monday.
According to data compiled exclusively for Retail Week by Similarweb, the ultra-low-price retailer garnered 2.8m visits during the weekend by luring in shoppers with the promise of 90% off its wares.
The retailer offered smartwatches and other electronics on sale for a few pounds, and toys, jewellery, home decor and accessories listed for even less – and new shoppers were given welcome discounts for their first order.
The performance meant that AliExpress’ site was more popular with Brits than the websites of SportsDirect, Nike and Apple which were also offering hefty discounts and rewards to shop with them.
AliExpress also beat out rival Temu, which saw a dramatic drop in this year’s traffic compared to last year. Despite also offering shoppers up to 90% off, visits to Temu fell more than 36% to 1 million on Black Friday, and looking across the weekend to Cyber Monday it fell 12 places to 23rd in the ranking.
Just a few months ago, the newcomer admitted that growth was beginning to show signs of plateauing.
During a call to analysts following the release of its results in August, Temu co-chief executive Jiazhen Zhao said “the decline in our profitability is inevitable” as the group faced more competition.
Similarweb senior insights analyst Daniel Reid said: “This year’s Black Friday revealed an intriguing consumer trend: a clear focus on both value and premium offerings.
“While platforms like DHgate and AliExpress saw significant growth in terms of web traffic – underscoring the appeal of value-driven shopping – even outpacing Temu, premium brands also experienced strong momentum.
“As a result, the brands who have benefited the most from Black Friday this year are positioned at the end of the spectrum – value and premium markets, while mid-tier, mass-market players like Amazon and Very experienced a relative decline in comparison.
“This shift reflects a growing preference among consumers to shop directly with brands, bypassing intermediaries in favour of a more tailored and authentic purchasing experience.”
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