Big rush on Black Friday sales

Contrary to expectations of a failed Black Friday for Nigeria’s e-commerce sites as a result of the current economic recession, online retail chains say they have witnessed surprisingly high customer interest so far, in the build up to this year’s Black Friday.

Last year, many Nigerians experienced the first ever Black Friday sales held on e-commerce sites such as Jumia, Konga, Kaymu, Yudala and others and therefore took advantage of the excitement of a new way of shopping and price slashes.

Reacting to analysts’ prediction that this year’s Black Friday discounts might not gain as much traction as it did in 2015 because of the current economic slowdown, Juliet Anammah, Chief Executive Officer, Jumia Nigeria, told BusinessDay that Nigerians have not stopped buying but have instead, re-prioritised their shopping needs and so retail stores are seeing more purchases in household items and children’s items rather than the regular impulse buying of clothing items.

“Being realistic, it is not that customers have stopped shopping, it is just that they shop for different things and their priorities have changed. So you find that this year we have in addition to home appliances that people may buy, like washing machines, air conditioners, blenders, irons, and things they need for their home. We also realised that people are shopping for their babies, which we never had before.   We have customers also buying diapers and baby clothes,” Anammah said.

Annamah disclosed that; “in the first few hours that Black Friday sale was launched on Monday November 14, 2016, Jumia had about 5,300 customer orders.”

BusinessDay gathered that other e-commerce sites are also putting in place plans to ensure that Black Friday 2016 is even more successful than last year’s records.

Yudala said that it will give bargain hungry Nigerians the chance to get an early taste of its Black Friday discounts, one week prior to the actual Black Friday, which is next Friday, November 25, 2016.

According to Gideon Ayogu, Head, Corporate Communications at Yudala, the midday madness Black Friday sales that commenced on Monday the 14th of November has received unmatchable interest from the public.

“Already, we have recorded impressive sales with the midday flash sales that started on Monday and to think that this is just a teaser of what to expect on the real Black Friday sales,” Ayogu told BusinessDay in a telephone interview.

  Nnamdi Ekeh, founder and Vice President, Yudala, said Nigerians are in for a more rewarding experience with this year’s edition.

“This year, we are asking Nigerians to – wait for the real Black Friday exclusive to Yudala and we are also offering same day delivery on products nationwide,” Ekeh said.

Konga, which had massive campaigns on deals to be offered prior to its Yakata Black Friday sales, launched at 12 midnight today and launched a portal on their online platform for customers to fill in their contact details in order to be the first to know when prices crash.

Jumia also decided this year to extend Black Friday discounts for 12 days in order to satisfy customers and ensure success of Black Friday.

“One of the challenges of Black Friday is that it is one day. So there is just one day for massive logistics that is very difficult to handle. That is why this year; we have decided to spread it for 12 days, giving each day a particular theme. This will reduce the pressure in terms of logistics operations, so that it is easier for us to handle the overall logistics operations and make sure that customers have the opportunity of ordering and getting what they ordered delivered,” Anammah told BusinessDay.

Black Friday is the Friday after the American Thanksgiving, and it is one of the major shopping days of the year in the United States, falling anywhere between November 23 and 29, every year. This day has been known as the unofficial start to a bustling holiday shopping season with huge sales on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, which is the Monday after Thanksgiving holiday, created by marketing companies to persuade people to shop online.

As retailers began to realise that they could draw big crowds by discounting prices, Black Friday and cyber Monday became the days to shop, even better than those last minute Christmas sales. Nigerian retailers jumped on the bandwagon, so bargain hunters in Nigeria can get the chance to get festive deals.

JUMOKE AKIYODE