Britons splash out £6 billion a year emulating celebrating lifestyles

Magazines and social media's report on celebrity styles and fashion because such news drive circulation sales and in turn, what a celebrity wears can have great influence on the way we shop in the UK.

David Beckham named as
British Fashion Council (BFC) 's
Ambassadorial President last year.
BFC photo.

According to a new report conducted by OnePoll for Zopa, British consumers love to emulate celebrity lifestyles to the tune of £6 billion a year, in the survey of 2,000 consumers.  Additionally a typical Briton spends £517 yearly making an attempt to emulate celebrities’ lifestyles.  While nearly a fifth admitted to purchasing merchandise within a fortnight after seeing a star wearing or using a merchandise, one in four adults stating that their spending habits have been influenced indirectly by celebrities.

The most influential female celebrity has been revealed as TV star Holly Willoughby, presenter on This Morning, whereas  David Beckham is deemed the most influential male celebrity.

Other influential female celebrities include Rihanna, Kate Middleton, the Kardashians, Kate Moss, Meghan Markle, Taylor Swift, Victoria Beckham and Emma Watson.

Male style-role models include actors Bradley Cooper and George Clooney followed by Cristiano Ronaldo, Kanye West, Ryan Gosling, David Gandy, Justin Bieber and Harry Styles.

The top items that celebrities inspire consumers to buy included gadgets and clothing, and products for the home.
Celebrities can also influence us on hairstyles, fragrances, merchandise, watches, make-up, footwear, luggage, jewellery and sunglasses.

The survey shows that women are more incliend than men to be swayed by a celebrity link, while 25 percent in comparison with 22 percent of males.  But men are more likely to be influenced to make more expensive purchases.

Tis the season to shop and spend

Did you enjoy the Black Friday sales?
Did you shop from the comfort of your home or you opted to physically visit the stores?

According to specialists' reports, physical retail traffic referred to as footfall was surprisingly strong while online sales did not grow as much as expected.

Footfall tracking specialist Springboard reported that overall footfall rose 2% on Black Friday (25th November) but fell 0.8% on Saturday.  While high streets and retail parks' traffic were up, shopping malls turned in the worst performance.

Springboard also quoted data from PCA Predict that online transactions rose only 6.7% on Friday and 1.8% on Saturday, defying preditions of 25% increase.

UK's Black Friday evolves as majority of sales move online

Slow fashion label A-MM-E by Emma Kempton is one of the British-made brands on the online store set up by
Best of Britannia, the consumer event platform of British brands.
The BOB online store will launch on November 24th to coincide with Black Friday weekend in the UK.

Experts predict Black Friday this year in the UK will be another shopping bonanza, and that £1.1bn spent last year on the day to be surpassed. Emerging key trends point to evolving consumers behaviour with  15 billion online searches a month regarding Black Friday. 

Online spending on and around Black Friday in the UK this year (that's November 24th, the day after the US celebrates Thanksgiving) will hit an estimated £6.77bn, according to e-tailer body IMRG and SimilarWeb. And around 51% of that spend will be via mobile devices as m-commerce continues to grow fast.  But insights-driven advertising technology company Captify predict the £1.1 bn spent last year on Black Friday is set to be surpassed.

Justin Opie, managing director at IMRG also said the Black Friday period is evolving but despite retailers focusing on week-long bargains, IMRG believes as much as £1.27bn will be spent on the day itself, up 16% year-on-year. And around £3.45bn of the total spend will go through smartphones and tablets.

Genevieve Sweeney lunxury knitwear for men and women is one of British labels on the Best of Britannia online shop. 

Dom Joseph CEO and Co-Founder of Captify, an insights-driven advertising technology company, also predicts the £1.1bn spent last year on Black Friday is to be surpassed.

He said, “In the six years since its introduction into the UK, Black Friday is rightly recognised as the best day of the year to get a good deal on a huge variety of products.”

“We are seeing two key trends emerge this year, firstly, more and more retailers, both online and offline, have offered discounts well ahead of Black Friday. Amazon launched its ‘35 days of Black Friday’ , while UK companies, such as Argos and Tesco, have also offered deals ahead of the day, in order to capture as many consumers as possible. Retailers know the heightened expectations that consumers have for Black Friday, which is why we’ve seen such growth in discounts before the event itself.”

“Secondly, people are now monitoring the prices of products they want to buy, months in advance of Black Friday, and researching information as early as August. Not only this, based on the analysis of 15 billion online searches, there was actually an 11% jump last month of UK consumers researching product prices related to Black Friday, compared to last year."

“Consumers will always vote with their wallets, and if Black Friday didn’t offer huge price discounts on products that consumers valued and wanted, it wouldn’t be nearly as successful as it is and will continue to be.”