Disappointing Black Friday sales leave Swiss retailers in the red

Black Friday costs Swiss retailers 100 million francs Keystone-SDA

Black Friday has clearly lost its lustre for the Swiss retail trade who lost CHF100 million (about $127 million). Consumers have given retailers the cold shoulder this year.

According to a recent study by the Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute (GDI), this year’s Black Friday has become a burden for the Swiss retail trade. Disillusionment now prevails over the annual shopping trend.

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Consumers were twice as likely to categorise the discounted offers as “disappointing” rather than “attractive”. Two-thirds of respondents now consider Black Friday to be “overrated”, with only a small minority still believing they are actually saving money.

According to the GDI, an average of three items were purchased per person, with a total value of around CHF200 and an average discount of 30%. In total, the Swiss spent around CHF703 million in the days surrounding Black Friday.

Budgets significantly undercut

In the run-up to the bargain days surrounding Black Friday, various surveys predicted significantly higher spending. For example, the retail experts on the Blackfriday.ch platform expected average spending of CHF266.86. This was already 11% less than in 2024.

What’s more, according to the GDI study, 72% of the products purchased would have been bought anyway. There was therefore a strong “upstream and downstream shift” of purchases.

The estimated additional turnover of CHF196 million was significantly exceeded by a loss in value of CHF291 million due to discounts. Black Friday in Switzerland therefore resulted in a clear loss and cost retailers around CHF100 million on balance.

Hardly any more profits

Data on payment transactions also shows that the discount battle imported from the US has probably passed its peak in Switzerland.

An analysis by the news agency AWP based on data from “Monitoring Consumption Switzerland” shows that sales from credit, debit and mobile payments fell again by around one per cent compared to Black Friday 2024. This is despite the fact that more and more payments are being made by card.

The trend from last year thus continued. There had already been a drop of 3% in 2024.

The GDI’s conclusion sounds sobering: high discounts may bring short-term increases in sales, but the Black Friday hype jeopardises profitability in the long term. Retailers would have to sell more and more in order to make a profit despite discounts – a feat that does not appear to have been achieved in 2025 either.

Merry Christmas?

Meanwhile, at least for the toy industry, there should be a ray of hope in the Christmas season. According to a survey by market researcher Nielsen IQ, demand for Lego sets remains unbroken.

An average of CHF424 is expected to be spent on toys as Christmas gifts. This would correspond to an increase of 14% compared to the previous year and, according to Nielsen, would be the second-highest figure in the last 10 years.

And retailers can also hope for some additional sales after the festive season. After all, cash and gift vouchers remain the second most popular presents after toys.

Adapted from German by DeepL/ac

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