It seems that South Africans responded extremely well to the recent Black Friday event that occurred in November 2019. The once American only holiday has been successfully adopted by South Africans for a few years now and has been a hit since being introduced by South African retailers. This year, Black Friday surprisingly reached record-breaking sales despite the tough economic times.
It turns out that the country’s economic situation didn’t stop fellow South Africans from taking full advantage of a potentially great deal. Many of the consumers did not hold back and decided to embrace all of Black Friday’s deals and specials by showing up in full force, resulting in a total spend of R6 billion which managed to surpass many retailers’ expectations.
One online retail store, OneDayOnly stepped up to the plate and provided some unbelievable deals and even chose to give away R1 million in “100%-off” deals, which included big appliances like TVs and washing machines. They had limited stock online and so in order for customers to benefit, they had to act quickly in snapping up the free merchandise that was on offer. Interestingly enough, South Africans didn’t only save up their money for Black Friday to spend on big-ticket items but also took advantage of sales available for essential household items such as non-perishables, which consisted mostly of long-life milk, sugar, coffee, nappies, washing powder, and toilet paper according to Pick ‘n Pay.
Judging from items sold that were considered “big-ticket”, it seemed like most people’s plan was to use the Black Friday sales to save on Christmas gifts they had been eyeing all year.
Despite desperate times, Black Friday sales and purchases were able to work in favour of the South African economy and provided a much-needed boost according to BankServAfrica.
Solly Bellingan, head of customer relations at BankservAfrica had this to say “Black Friday did not disappoint,” and Shergeran Naidoo, Head of Stakeholder Engagements at BankservAfrica added, “The BETI recorded the highest ever number of transactions of 104.8 million in November 2019.”
