UK adults spent more on Black Friday than they invested the entire year. Something’s gone wrong!

When the average UK adult spends more on Black Friday than they invest in an entire year, it’s clear we’re losing the battle for consumer attention, writes Octopus Money CEO Ruth Handcock

Every year, as Black Friday shopping deals fill our screens, retailers masterfully create a buzz of short-term spending excitement. Brands spend millions on advertising and promotions to encourage consumers to indulge in impulsive spending. 

It’s now well documented that Black Friday deals are often not deals at all, with some businesses inflating prices before discounts, making “savings” misleading. Yet still, we are lured into a fantasy of securing a discount. 

Meanwhile, the financial services industry, a cornerstone of financial security and resilience, completely fails to capture consumers’ imaginations with a message that is far more important: the power of investing in your future. 

The truth is stark – while half of UK adults reach retirement age without enough money to live the life they want and financial stress is a leading cause of poor mental health, we’ve yet to make long-term saving and investing as emotionally compelling as the instant gratification of great shopping deals.  

A nation gripped by inertia

We live in a culture that’s wired to make us buy now and take advantage of short-term bargains, yet the one thing that never gets a discount code is the stuff that we don’t buy now and instead save for the future.

Spending is synonymous with being tangible and immediately satisfying. Saving, by contrast, is often seen as dull – a chore we know is necessary but devoid of any thrill or excitement.

This disconnect is at the heart of the nation’s financial inertia. We know from our own research that almost a quarter of UK adults admit to overspending during events like Black Friday, yet almost half express concern about not having the funds to meet their long-term dreams, such as being mortgage-free, living comfortably or supporting their children and grandchildren.

Black Friday was recorded as the biggest single online shopping day of 2024 in the UK, with a total £1.12bn spent online. Let that sink in: we spent over a billion pounds to… save money on material things?

When the average UK adult spends more on Black Friday than they invest in an entire year, it’s clear we’re losing the battle for consumer attention. The question I’m asking myself and my peers is: how can we do a better job at ‘selling’ what people can achieve through long-term saving and investing?

Making future dreams tangible

The challenge isn’t about competing with the retail sector, it’s about matching their tactics. 

Retailers don’t just sell products, they sell dreams, lifestyles and aspirations. Without an emotional impact, people don’t do anything. To make a real difference and change consumer behaviour, we need to inspire the same kind of hope and imagination and make saving as tangible and emotionally satisfying – a ticket to a more exciting future.

In the same way retailers entice people with shopping deals, we need to encourage people to consider the “deal of a lifetime” by planning ahead and redirecting their spending towards investments that can grow into life-changing sums. For example, for a person who spent £20 this Black Friday, investing that amount each month for the next 20 years could grow to £6,100 over 20 years which could be spent on dream items and experiences – from a kitchen renovation to a five-star holiday or a contribution towards children’s university tuition. Answer me this: would you rather get a 28 per cent discount on a home or an air fryer?

As an industry, we must find more ways of meeting consumers where they are, rather than expecting them to find us. I’ve never seen a room of adults get so excited as the time we installed a grab machine filled with Octopus plushies at an event in our office. Likewise, the Greggs and Monzo sausage roll ATM was a light-hearted stunt, but it grabbed consumers’ attention and showed the power of fun collaboration with consumer brands. Innovative use of social media channels like Instagram and Tiktok, and partnering with influencers, is another tactic that we should be deploying regularly.  

Ultimately, managing your money and saving is like eating broccoli. We know we should do it, but we’d rather eat chocolate cake. Like eating healthily or working out, people have good intentions to save. But most financial services brands continue to sell us more broccoli, rather than finding exciting, emotional ways to engage us. As an industry, we need to start serving chocolate cake.