Thursday 24 November 2016 11:52 am

One reason you should hold off on going berserk this Black Friday – the January sales will be even better

There are plenty of great deals that will go live at midnight tonight – but it might be better to hold off on spending all your hard-earned cash. The January sales will be better.

Retail analyst Richard Hyman has done the maths and found that last year 65 per cent of the retail industry was on sale on Black Friday. But, by the time the January sales hit, 91 per cent of retailers were on sale. So don't spend all of your money, unless it's something you need – because you'll have more choice in the New Year.

"Black Friday's first full year over here was 2014, and that has turned out to be it's peak," Hyman said. "Since then it has toned down a little."

This year will be "an even damper squib" than last year, Hyman said. At the beginning of this week, 25 per cent fewer retailers had launched Black Friday offers, and with one day left to go, "a significant number remain on the sidelines".

The January sales are going to be a much bigger affair than Black Friday, according to Guy Chiswick, managing director for Webloyalty in northern Europe.

"The growth of Black Friday hasn't overshadowed the January sales in previous years so I see no reason why it would now," Chiswick said. "The January sales still offer great potential for great deals, particularly on the seasonal stock that retailers haven’t managed to sell in the run up to Christmas. I think it’s very unlikely that Black Friday will trump the New Year sales completely."

And many retailers have been on sale for much of the year already, especially clothing retailers, which have struggled to sell summer stock due to unseasonable weather.

With so much discounting going on, we may not even be able to distinguish between the January sales and Black Friday in coming years.

Chris Field, analyst and chairman of Retail Connections, said:

Each year we see retailers extending their promotions strategies, so you could argue that we’re moving towards a discounting period that spans all the way through to January, so it won’t be a case of one being larger than the other, they will simply morph into the same thing.

The advantage with spending on Black Friday is, of course, that it comes before Christmas, so you can sort out all of your gift shopping.

"Anyone who is missing Black Friday is missing a trick really," said Elizabetta Camilleri of Shopological. "In fashion in particular, because the retailers have everything in stock. The probability of actually finding what you want is much greater."