SA retailers welcome growing interest in Black Friday

This year the big day falls on 29 November, while Cyber Monday falls on 2 December. Chloe Lötter, the CEO of comparison website PriceCheck, says this will be a boon for retailers looking to take advantage of payday spending.

PriceCheck states it saw a nearly 200% increase in users day-on-day on Black Friday in 2018, with more than 82,500 unique products clicked over the campaign week, and over 2.2 million people using the comparison tool to find the best bargains.

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The company sourced commentary from some of its top retailers about what it’s like to participate in the popular annual shopping phenomenon.

Clynton McCalgan, head of digital at Superbalist, says the growth the online fashion retailer has seen over the last few years is extreme and shows no signs of slowing down. “Despite having been involved in this period for years and building efficiencies into tackling the monster that is Black Friday, we always find new, ambitious projects and things we never thought of in previous years, so it is always a fresh new challenge," he adds.

Clicks chief commercial officer Rachel Wrigglesworth also enjoys the festivity around this increasingly popular shopping period. “It has completely changed the manner in which people shop in the run-up to Christmas,” she says. “Customers plan far in advance of the event and set aside savings to spend during this period. Google data shows us that customers start searching weeks before the event.”

South African online marketplace and auction site bidorbuy has also reported record sales during this period. “In 2018, we saw high double-digit year-on-year sales growth in our home and living category, while toys and sport and leisure broke into our top categories,” states marketing manager Anne-Marie Green.

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For Greg le Roux, CEO of e-commerce site Loot, the Black Friday weekend itself is the culmination of months of hard work, all building to that midnight moment that has come to define the festive shopping season in the online world. “We look forward to delivering another frenzied dose of massive savings to our valued customers and partners this Black Friday,” he says.

South African online purchasing behaviour has shown that consumers tend to go for trust over price point, making it an ideal time of the year for online stores to establish credibility and delight their existing customers.