When do Black Friday sales start? Full list of UK retailers' start dates for 2026
By Google News Category Deals ·
They say there are three constants in life: death, taxes and Black Friday sales.
Black Friday may not have the excitement of Christmas, or the gravitas of New Year's, but it still deserves a big red 'X' in your 2026 calendar.
The annual sales window – which now lasts the whole of November – sees thousands of deals and discounts pouring out of UK retailers, from gaming and tech to fashion to kitchenware.
Last year, Black Friday itself was the UK's biggest shopping day of the year, with Brits spending a whopping £1.16 billion, and the overall spend across the month reaching £26.9 billion (according to Adobe).
This marked a 4.1% increase on the year before, and this year is expected to rise again. A new study from PayPal suggests spend is set to reach £6.7 billion across the Black Friday-Cyber Monday weekend, with most adults currently deferring purchases until they know the deals are there.
But are they there? We all know there is a healthy amount of scepticism around the Black Friday sales and honestly, as someone who has covered four years of them now, there's sometimes good reason. Last year in particular, consumer champion Which? found that eight out of 10 products from major retailers were not at their best price during the Black Friday sale.
Out of 175 items from eight major stores, 83% were cheaper or equal in price at least once outside the four-week Black Friday period, which means you could have got them cheaper at another point during the year.
But look, the year is nearly ending and if you've been waiting until now to buy a certain product or get your Christmas shopping done, this really is the last chance you'll have to get it cheaper.
Again, having covered plenty of these now I can honestly say there are always some genuine gems of deals out there – I'd always recommend checking out the TV and music streaming discounts in particular, plus the savings on Virgin Experience Days.
So below, I've laid out exactly what you need to know to get the most out of this year's Black Friday sale, including which retailers you can trust and how to spot the real deals from the fake.
Black Friday 2026 falls on 27 November – the last Friday of the month and the day after American Thanksgiving.
While Black Friday isn't until the end of November, the sales period typically lasts the entire month with most retailers already going live with their deals.
Often, we see UK stores starting their online deals from now. However, some choose to wait for what's known as 'fake Black Friday' i.e. the Friday before, which would be 20 November.
The official end of the Black Friday sales period is the following Monday, known as Cyber Monday.
This year, Cyber Monday is on 30 November and will be the last day retailers run their deals.
In Which?'s 2025 study, it found that not only were most products not at their cheapest during November, not a single product was at its lowest price on Black Friday itself.
Most retailers were found guilty of relying on the 'hype' of Black Friday to pull people in, which means there's no pressure to actually buy the product on 27 November.
My advice is, don't wait. If you see a good deal on something you've had your eye on, snap it up before it sells out. It might also be helpful to spread your spending across the month.
Now the tricky part. As I've said, there has been, let's say, questionable behaviour from retailers in the past years. So that poses an interesting challenge when it comes to spotting real…
Originally published by Google News Category Deals
