In 2024, Europe’s online weekly sales doubled during the Black Friday week, cementing this US tradition’s place in our calendars.

Stores and consumers are geared up for pre-Christmas sales and spending on everything from electronics to fashion and furniture. Our members in Italy, Spain, Portugal*and Belgium have been finding out shoppers’ plans for November 28th – and watching whether discounts are real or fake.

Learn what we found out about 2025’s Black Friday shoppers and how Euroconsumers’ members’ tools can empower consumers to secure quality products not dodgy discounts and secure a quality bargain:

Black Friday consumers are planning to spend big   

Around 8 out of 10 Italian consumers intend to shop on Black Friday, with a planned average spend of around 270 euros each – which works out at 222 euros on average across the whole population. 

In Spain, just over three quarters (78%) of those surveyed were planning to bag a Black Friday bargain – with 17% of this group considering spending over 500 euros. 

74% of Portuguese consumers are planning to shop on Black Friday and are expected to spend an average of 274 euros. Clothing, shoes and accessories remain at the top of consumers’  shopping list, followed by hi-tech products such as phones, laptops and smart home devices

What do people like about Black Friday?

65% of those surveyed in Spain believe it’s worth shopping on Black Friday because of the discounts that can be obtained, especially for Christmas buys. 

In fact, Spaniards calculate that last year they managed to save an average of 109 euros on their purchases, and Italians reported savings of about 129 euros. And in Portugal, people expect to get discounts of between 26 and 36%.  

Black Friday consumers prefer online shopping to the high street 

Online shopping continues to dominate Black Friday. In Spain, only 7% of respondents planned on using physical stores as their main way to buy and 28% said they would buy exclusively online – 31% would do both.  

Italians were even keener on the digital shopping option, 65% said they planned to buy more online than in physical stores and 18% said they’d split between on and offline. 

And, although lagging behind other countries, online shopping continues to gain ground among Portuguese consumers. Almost 39% plan to shop entirely or mostly online during Black Friday, while 33% intend to do both. One in ten (11%) say they will buy almost exclusively in physical shops. 

Black Friday consumers are tactical and well prepared 

Consumers do a lot of preparation before and during Black Friday to make sure they are getting the best quality, price and reliable service for their money. This explains in part why online shopping channels, as such a major source of information and price comparison are such a popular option. 

Marketplaces, comparison tools, social networks and reviews all combine to form an information ecosystem that, with the right approach and sometimes supplemented by offline checks can guide smarter purchasing decisions.

Tactical tools

In Portugal 20% of respondents planning to spend on Black Friday said they use promotion and discount channels, like messaging app groups, to keep track of the best deals in real time. 68% say they are planning to visit stores or websites to confirm prices and offers before the big day.

Black Friday consumers are wary of misleading prices and the risk of rip offs 

Many people are now monitoring prices over time to check for fake discounting – reflecting a healthy level of cynicism amongst today’s digital consumers. 

In fact, among the Portuguese consumers who were not planning to spend on Black Friday, almost a quarter (23%) believe it’s not worth it – does this reflect a growing distrust of promotions?

Discount distrust

In Italy, despite the enthusiasm for shopping on Black Friday, more than half (53%) of people surveyed believe some stores raise prices in the weeks beforehand to make discounts more attractive. The rate is higher in  Portugal 75% of consumers think stores inflate then drop prices to create a false sense of discount. 

Euroconsumers members price tracking reveals fake discounting 

This distrust of pricing is well justified – data gathered by our member organisations and the European Commission and readily available consumer-facing  price tracking tools show that many products have similar prices in regular periods, and that discounts are often massaged to look more attractive by raising prices before Black Friday promotions. 

Testachats/Testaankoop: only 30% of Black Friday discounts are genuine 

Each year, our Belgian member Testachats/Testaankoop analyzes Black Friday promotions. 

Although on average prices are lowest on the day itself this does not tell the whole story: after following the price journey of 40,000 electronics for the weeks around Black Friday, they found that only 30% of promotions were a genuine bargain.  

For the remaining 70% the product was on sale at a better price in another store, or at a different time of the year – or it is a bad product so it is a waste of money anyway. They recommend Belgian consumers check: Rate My Deal to find out where to get the definitive best deal not only on electronics but on more than 2,900 products across 42 different categories.   

Testachats/Testaankoop found poor pricing compliance and fake discounts

In addition to bad deals, many shops and online marketplaces offer downright fake deals. EU consumer law requires that a discount must be calculated on the lowest price that the store has applied in the 30 days before the discount. Like all our members, Testachats/Testaankoop have found artificially high discounts calculated on the wrong prices. 

For example, on Amazon.nl, the retailer Art&Craft is offering a Siemens coffee machine for €1,167 instead of €1,349, an announced discount of 13%. However, to calculate the discount, Art&Craft should use the lowest price the coffee machine was on sale in the last 30 days, i.e. €1,098. In other words, a price lower than the sale price displayed – so the offer is not a reduction, but an increase in price.

Testachats/Testaankoop will report all cases of fake discounts to their national authorities and in the meantime warn consumers to pay close attention to price history and not be distracted by what looks like a high discount. 

Black Friday consumers can empower themselves  

It’s great to see consumers preparing their Black Friday strategies to make the most of their purchasing power. Our members are here to help with support from a range of tools to support spending decisions and make sure stores and sellers respect consumer rights:

• 1. Use discount trackers: for Portuguese consumers, DECO PROteste has a free online Compare Prices tool where anyone can check the price history of products to make sure that an advertised discount is actually a good option.  To get results, just enter the name of the store and a product or the URL of the webpage where it is being sold in the search engine, to find out the prices of the product over the last three months. Testachats/ Testaankoop has a Good Deal Tracker to find the best deal on any day from a range of tested products by category, brand, and model.
• 2. Help your consumer community: OCU is asking consumers who find pricing irregularities and false discounting to report it on their social networks through the hashtag #timofertasBF or ‘great dealsBF’ so they can identify illegal practices and report them to the consumer authorities.
• 3. Check out the quality of the products: in the rush to buy on Black Friday, it’s even more important to check quality as well as prices and discounts. All of our member organizations provide comparative tests of hundreds of products across tech, health, home and appliances.
• 4. Find out how reliable online store is: our Italian member Altroconsumo has an online store ranking tool which evaluates key factors like product information, payment security, returns processes and our independent consumer satisfaction data. This tool provides valuable context alongside product quality details, giving consumers more confidence in their purchasing decisions. Online Stores Ranking Altroconsumo
• 5. Know the purchase and return policies: the consumer surveys showed that some shoppers split their purchases between online and in‑store on Black Friday, so it’s crucial to understand how return rights can vary across the two channels.  By law, online purchases can be returned within 14 days, but if bought in store returns are only possible in case of a defect. Many stores will have their own return policies so be sure to check out the particular return policies and see if any exceptions apply for good brought on promotion.
• 6. Be careful with offers that look too good: the old phrase ‘too good to be true’ has served people well over the years, and our members always caution consumers to be wary of discounts that seem unrealistic, and to do additional checks on the security and credibility of sites that offer them, in case they are a scam. Here’s a tool from DECO PROteste to help check whether the sites will expose consumers to phishing, malware or viruses: Is this website safe? | DECO PROteste
• 7. Stay mindful of impulse buys: when consumers reflected on 2024’s Black Friday, they identified some impulsive purchasing – such as going over budget or picking up items they hadn’t planned to buy. Fast-moving promotions and attractive pricing were seen as factors that contributed to these unplanned purchases.

Read more about our national members’ Black Friday survey and tips here:

• • OCU: Compras y gastos en Black Friday. Encuesta | OCU
• • DECOPROteste: https://www.deco.proteste.pt/familia-consumo/direitos-consumidor/noticias/black-friday-analise-campanhas-descontos
• • Altroconsumo: https://www.altroconsumo.it/soldi/black-friday/news/inchiesta-italiani-e-black-friday 
• • Testachats/Testaankoop: https://www.test-achats.be/tous-les-contenus/black-friday

*Around 2000 consumers in each of the three countries were surveyed online in October 2025. Results were weighted to reflect the population in terms of gender, age, educational level etc.