Ranking: The 50 most popular retail websites over Black Friday weekend

Landing on payday weekend and benefiting from shoppers’ intent to get ahead of their Christmas shopping early – Black Friday was the bumper shopping day retailers had hoped for. However, the number of visits to the two most popular Black Friday retailers shuffled down slightly on the big day. 

Amazon saw a 5% drop, equating to around 800,000 fewer visits to its site, while eBay fell by 4.7%, a drop of around 300,000 visits. 

According to Similarweb senior insights analyst Daniel Reid, this drop is less about those retailers’ approach to Black Friday deals and instead part of a wider trend playing out among shoppers. 

“The brands who have benefited the most from Black Friday this year are positioned at the ends of the spectrum – value and premium markets – while mid-tier, mass-market players like Amazon and Very experienced a relative decline in comparison,” Reid said. 

“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.” 

Data from the British Retail Consortium also shows non-food and in-store sales were given a much-needed boost over the Black Friday weekend. Non-food sales climbed 5.5%, which will come as a welcome relief to retailers who had endured tough trading during November, while  in-store sales were up 4.1% over the weekend.

Site visits did not shift enough this year to displace any of the top four retailers – two of them had evidently more successful Black Fridays than they did last year. Both Argos and John Lewis saw traffic grow by 12-13%, with the latter undoubtedly benefiting from the return of its Never Knowingly Undersold price-matching promise. 

Despite not participating in Black Friday, or mentioning it in their marketing, Next and Marks & Spencer saw boosts over the weekend – up by 11% and 27% respectively. 

The retail websites with the highest traffic on Black Friday 2024 

Retailer website	Black Friday 2024 (Nov 29)	Black Friday 2023 (Nov 24)	Year-on-year change
amazon.co.uk	14.7M	15.5M	-5.34%
ebay.co.uk	6.5M	6.8M	-4.77%
argos.co.uk	3.3M	2.9M	12.03%
johnlewis.com	2.2M	1.9M	13.04%
currys.co.uk	2.0M	2.0M	0.65%
boots.com	1.7M	1.3M	27.46%
etsy.com	1.6M	1.5M	1.08%
asos.com	1.5M	1.1M	33.92%
marksandspencer.com	1.4M	1.1M	26.59%
next.co.uk	1.4M	1.2M	10.86%
samsung.com	1.4M	1.1M	30.04%
asda.com	1.1M	1.0M	14.76%
jdsports.co.uk	1.0M	952.1K	10.14%
tesco.com	1.0M	893.2K	16.65%
shein.co.uk	901.5K	622.1K	44.91%
very.co.uk	869.9K	986.8K	-11.85%
aliexpress.com	829.3K	345.5K	140.03%
sainsburys.co.uk	828.8K	923.7K	-10.27%
apple.com	812.1K	749.8K	8.30%
screwfix.com	791.7K	795.2K	-0.44%
sportsdirect.com	788.8K	670.9K	17.58%
debenhams.com	733.6K	766.0K	-4.24%
nike.com	674.7K	800.9K	-15.77%
temu.com	666.6K	1.0M	-36.51%
lookfantastic.com	662.6K	677.8K	-2.25%
vodafone.co.uk	641.9K	823.3K	-22.03%
vinted.co.uk	593.1K	366.0K	62.05%
hm.com	546.2K	573.9K	-4.83%
adidas.co.uk	534.6K	538.8K	-0.78%
ikea.com	530.6K	487.8K	8.76%
newlook.com	524.5K	529.1K	-0.86%
ee.co.uk	515.1K	551.6K	-6.61%
wayfair.co.uk	493.6K	714.7K	-30.94%
therange.co.uk	469.8K	414.9K	13.24%
zara.com	456.4K	564.8K	-19.19%
tkmaxx.com	448.7K	486.8K	-7.83%
halfords.com	409.5K	392.2K	4.39%
schuh.co.uk	409.1K	433.3K	-5.59%
three.co.uk	380.0K	703.9K	-46.01%
uniqlo.com	362.0K	318.1K	13.80%
costco.co.uk	344.6K	345.7K	-0.34%
houseoffraser.co.uk	341.9K	385.7K	-11.36%
boohoo.com	333.1K	440.5K	-24.37%
superdrug.com	329.7K	512.6K	-35.67%
riverisland.com	313.1K	264.9K	18.20%
office.co.uk	307.9K	322.9K	-4.65%
ao.com	306.6K	356.9K	-14.10%
sephora.co.uk	293.1K	313.9K	-6.63%
matalan.co.uk	278.7K	366.3K	-23.93%
footasylum.com	270.8K	292.4K	-7.41%

Beasts from the East

While traffic numbers at established favourites shifted at the top, the real battle was being fought out by the new ecommerce players further down the table – with much more dramatic peaks and troughs. 

On Black Friday itself, Shein topped the podium for the new pureplays, raking in an impressive 44.9% increase in traffic this year compared to last. The fast-fashion juggernaut was within touching distance of 1 million visits and was the fourth most-visited fashion retailer on the day behind John Lewis, Next, Asos and M&S. 

However, in percentage terms, Shein was not the fastest growing of the Asian pureplays that are gaining speed in the UK on the day. AliExpress brought in the highest year-on-year change of all retailers in the top 50, with an enormous 140% increase in traffic. Its growth now puts it just two spots down from Shein and ahead of Sainsbury’s, Apple and Sports Direct. 

The Alibaba-owned retailer pulled in the crowds with promises of up to 90% off its wares – with smartwatches and other electronics on sale for a few pounds and toys, jewellery, home decor and accessories listed for even less. 

Meanwhile, despite also promising visitors up to 90% off, rival Temu had less success on the big day. This could in part be down to more Brits using the Temu app, but the retailer admitted growth was beginning to show signs of plateauing just a couple of months ago. 

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 faces more competition.

Fashion Friday 

Clothing retailers underwent some steep traffic drops, with Matalan bringing in 23% fewer visits, H&M, Office and New Look all dipped slightly, but the biggest blow was felt by Boohoo – a 24.3% drop that is bound to be especially painful while it goes through a high-profile boardroom battle with Mike Ashley. 

Inditex’s crown jewel Zara also saw a steep drop, down 19%, which is likely to have more to do with it not participating in Black Friday sales than it not being popular among consumers. However, not participating in Black Friday did not hurt secondhand fashion marketplace Vinted, which saw a massive 60% jump – one of the steepest growth rates of any retailer on the table. 

When we stretch the survey period across the weekend, a new fashion brand enters the line-up. 

Luxury menswear brand Represent Clothing offered shoppers an extra 20% off their purchase during the promotional weekend and the offer certainly drew in the crowds. Founded in 2011 by brothers George and Michael Heaton, the brand saw traffic spike to 1.4 million visits, putting it alongside the likes of Adidas and TK Maxx, and moving up the table an incredible 98 places from last year to number 38. 

However, it seems Represent’s spike came after the big day itself, as it did not garner enough traffic on November 29 to break into the Black Friday top 50. 

The retail sites with the highest traffic over Black Friday weekend 2024

Retailer website	29 Nov	30 Nov	1 Dec	Black Friday weekend visits
amazon.co.uk	14.7M	13.7M	14.3M	42.7M
ebay.co.uk	6.5M	6.1M	6.4M	19.0M
argos.co.uk	3.3M	2.4M	2.7M	8.3M
johnlewis.com	2.2M	1.7M	1.9M	5.8M
etsy.com	1.6M	1.8M	1.9M	5.3M
currys.co.uk	2.0M	1.3M	1.6M	5.0M
boots.com	1.7M	1.3M	1.6M	4.6M
next.co.uk	1.4M	1.4M	1.5M	4.2M
marksandspencer.com	1.4M	1.2M	1.4M	4.0M
hotukdeals.com	1.5M	1.2M	1.1M	3.8M
asos.com	1.5M	976.4K	1.0M	3.4M
samsung.com	1.4M	1.2M	635.3K	3.2M
asda.com	1.1M	1.1M	1.1M	3.3M
tesco.com	1.0M	1.0M	1.1M	3.2M
aliexpress.com	829.3K	944.4K	1.0M	2.8M
shein.co.uk	901.5K	927.1K	899.2K	2.7M
jdsports.co.uk	1.0M	758.5K	867.3K	2.7M
sainsburys.co.uk	828.8K	888.9K	893.8K	2.6M
very.co.uk	869.9K	799.0K	775.3K	2.4M
screwfix.com	791.7K	763.5K	761.6K	2.3M
debenhams.com	733.6K	618.0K	894.4K	2.2M
apple.com	812.1K	714.3K	696.5K	2.2M
m.jdsports.co.uk	838.5K	620.8K	723.5K	2.2M
temu.com	666.6K	678.4K	834.7K	2.2M
sportsdirect.com	788.8K	570.3K	730.2K	2.1M
vinted.co.uk	593.1K	746.8K	666.1K	2.0M
just-eat.co.uk	673.3K	729.7K	569.2K	2.0M
amazon.com	713.3K	605.0K	649.0K	2.0M
nike.com	674.7K	529.2K	559.5K	1.8M
ikea.com	530.6K	575.6K	640.6K	1.7M
vodafone.co.uk	641.9K	505.8K	513.9K	1.7M
lookfantastic.com	662.6K	502.2K	450.0K	1.6M
newlook.com	524.5K	407.4K	647.3K	1.6M
therange.co.uk	469.8K	493.3K	597.4K	1.6M
wayfair.co.uk	493.6K	515.3K	523.1K	1.5M
hm.com	546.2K	438.3K	507.4K	1.5M
adidas.co.uk	534.6K	450.4K	447.4K	1.4M
ee.co.uk	515.1K	463.4K	438.0K	1.4M
representclo.com	154.0K	452.9K	759.6K	1.4M
tkmaxx.com	448.7K	408.3K	505.5K	1.4M
zara.com	456.4K	398.8K	364.7K	1.2M
schuh.co.uk	409.1K	395.2K	404.4K	1.2M
shopify.com	423.8K	301.9K	310.6K	1.0M
halfords.com	409.5K	315.6K	298.9K	1.0M
superdrug.com	329.7K	329.0K	334.1K	992.9K
three.co.uk	380.0K	301.6K	311.1K	992.8K
uniqlo.com	362.0K	337.3K	265.6K	964.9K
bestproductsreviews.co.uk	308.4K	277.8K	366.1K	952.3K
costco.co.uk	344.6K	289.2K	292.9K	926.7K
boohoo.com	333.1K	269.9K	294.3K	897.3K

Represent’s weekend performance goes to show that the power of Cyber Monday cannot be discounted. According to retail content management system Contentful, Cyber Monday saw a 50% year-on-year increase in delivery requests – from 2.03 billion to 3.06 billion – across retail, exceeding (in percentage terms) Black Friday’s 39% increase to 3.2 billion, from 2.31 billion in 2023.

Contentful vice-president of performance and growth Caitlin McCulloch says the day may even be the dark horse of the entire weekend. 

“After lagging behind Black Friday year on year, Cyber Monday is closer to parity with the marquee event. Despite deals typically waning down, it confirmed its spot as a key driver of significant web traffic for brands. 

“Retailers take note: this intensified shopping momentum is all about creating exceptional customer experiences through delivering timely and personalised content. Loyalty and success will follow,” she said.