Before Black Week starts
Can't wait? Browse our current Sale for products already on offer, or explore our natural beauty picks.
What is Black Friday?
Black Friday is a global shopping event that started in the United States on the Friday after Thanksgiving. Stores around the world lower their prices, and the day traditionally kicks off the Christmas shopping season.
Buy what you really need
We support responsible consumption. Black Friday is at its best when you use it to restock the products you already use and love, or to buy Christmas gifts you would have bought anyway, at a better price.
A short history of Black Friday
The name "Black Friday" was first used for the US gold market crash of 24 September 1869, which had nothing to do with shopping. The link to Christmas shopping came later. In 1863, President Lincoln made Thanksgiving a national holiday, and the day after it gradually became the unofficial start of the holiday season.
Thanksgiving parades made the day commercial. The Canadian department store Eaton's started its Santa Claus parade in Toronto in 1905, and Macy's followed in New York in 1924. Retailers had an informal agreement not to advertise Christmas sales before the parade was over.
In 1939, Thanksgiving fell late in November, which shortened the shopping season. President Roosevelt moved the holiday a week earlier, and the year became known as "Franksgiving". In 1941, Congress fixed Thanksgiving to the fourth Thursday of November, where it remains today.
In the 1960s, the Philadelphia police began calling the day "Black Friday" because of the traffic jams and crowds that Christmas shoppers caused in the city centre. The name stuck, and over the following decades it spread from the US to the rest of the world.