#BlackFriday sparks social conversations

With South African consumers hyped for #BlackFriday, local e-commerce players and traditional retailers are set to reap the rewards of the global Black Friday sales craze.

Although a relatively new concept in SA, over the past three years retailers have recorded in excess of a 200% spike in sales – deeming it the busiest shopping day of the year. #BlackFriday has dominated the online conversation over the past few days, this according to global media intelligence provider, Meltwater.

To guide retail and e-commerce brands on just how popular Black Friday is getting, during the past week alone, Meltwater has tracked mentions of #BlackFriday across social platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram, as well as message boards, blogs and forums, including the monitoring of editorial coverage across more than 270,000 media sources worldwide.

Some noteworthy results that are sure to get B2C marketers excited are the results around social conversations. For Twitter alone, the conversations around ‘#BlackFriday, #blackfridaydeals, #blackfridaydiscounts, or Black Friday’ grew a whopping 2,200% year over year in South Africa. This is a clear indication that Black Friday is growing in popularity in South Africa and retailers need to take note.