Consumers disappointed by ‘Black Friday’ offers

Many Nigerians who had hoped to make the most of the much anticipated “Black Friday” discount sales to stock up on basic necessities were left down and out by retail outlets which offered below-par discounts.

“Hahahah. Black Friday in Nigeria is like normal sales, no discounts” tweeted @kennedymalo, one of the many Nigerians who took to twitter to express his frustration at the deals on offer.

“There ain’t no #blackfriday sales in Nigeria this year. All stores on and probably offline have turned fraudulent” tweeted @missbusola_ade.

Many Nigerians spoken to by BusinessDay complained that the discounts offered on the much hyped ‘Black Friday’ sales were not steep enough, while some also insinuated that the shops had initially raised the price of the items prior to black Friday and only offered discounts on the higher prices.

“My brother, was there really a Black Friday?” Chiemela Uchenna, a banker residing in Lagos asked, while responding to BusinessDay. “Most of the things I saw online would be sold cheaper in the market, so why bother myself?”

Linda Ituen told BusinessDay that she had to walk away angry, when getting to a retailer that offered 50 percent discount to discover that only very few insignificant items on the shelves had the discount. The rest of the items were sold at prices even higher than they should.

Some ‘Black Friday’ shoppers also claimed that they were almost duped by some online traders.

Anthony Osaro, who ordered a phone from a major e-commerce platform, was unpleasantly surprised. He had thought he was getting a good discount as the said phone would normally go for over N58, 000 but was being offered for N23, 000 as a ‘Black Friday’ deal. When the phone eventually arrived, it was a low quality phone from a totally different manufacturer than what was advertised online.

“It took me days to recover the money I paid for the phone,” Uchenna recalled. Other consumers who spoke with BusinessDay said that some retailers would only give mouth-watering discounts on products that were either substandard or near their expiration date.

Susan Adigwe recalled a particular incident, “I went to a shopping mall (name withheld) on Friday, 25 November, while at the cashing point, I noticed a lady who was so excited about the deal she wanted to clinch. I asked to see the product and somehow noticed the expiring date; it was a few days away. I showed this to her, and her face quickly changed.”

Retail outlets that participated in the ‘Black Friday’ sales had promised customers wide-ranging discounts from 25 percent to 70 percent.

Jumia, an online retail outlet, which recorded an impressive volume of orders in 2015 with 2.3 million customer visits came back this year promising shoppers discounts of as much as 70 percent on all categories, as they kicked-off their 12-day sales on November 14.

Jumia’s offers also came with an online give-away for every customer who spent N10, 000 and above. Customers could also win an iPhone 7, a PS4 console, two economy class Etihad tickets and two business class tickets to Dubai.
Supermart.ng, an online grocery store, offered consumers discounts of 30 percent on groceries and everyday essentials purchased from November 21 up to 30th and all these would be delivered directly same day to customers doors, all across Lagos.

A poll conducted by BusinessDay showed that Nigerian shoppers who engaged in shopping activities on ‘Black Friday’ did so more from the comfort of their mobile phones and laptops. Out of the 793 people that responded to the poll on Friday, 33 percent said they did their shopping online, while only 18 percent went in-store.
But the poll also showed many Nigerians were indifferent about the ‘Black Friday’ as 48 percent of respondents to the survey said they stayed away because of the harsh economic situation in the country which has left household incomes at all-time lows. Many people who would have loved to shop during the ‘Black Friday’ sales could not, because cash was in short supply.

“There is no money for shopping now. The money I have at hand is not even enough to meet pressing needs,” said Adebambo Akeem, an Abuja-based civil servant.

Black Friday, popular in America and Europe, gained ground in Nigeria in the last three years as more Nigerians started shopping online as e-commerce platforms became popular. But this year’s black Friday sales has been overshadowed by the sharp devaluation in the naira against the US$ which has pushed up the prices of electronic items like mobile phones, which many Nigerians prefer to shop online. The weaker naira constrained the ability of the e-commerce platforms to offer significant discounts as most of their profits margins are already under pressure.

 

FRANK ELEANYA & CHINWE AGBEZE