Black Friday serves as a way for retailers to kick off the holiday season shopping. FILE PHOTO | NMG
Retailers globally this month offered promotional deals and
discounts on various products in commemoration of Black Friday, which is
regarded as the busiest annual shopping day, with consumers expected to
spend more this year.
In Kenya for instance, the newly
launched ecommerce platform, Masoko, offered 99 per cent off on
selected items on Black Friday. In its flash sale, a motorcycle with the
brand Bajaj Boxer was sold for one shilling from Sh102, 990 while in
the UK, Game Retail Limited, was selling popular video game console Xbox
One S 1TB Hot Wheels Bundle with a two month TV subscription at
£229.99, saving consumers £80.
In this, retailers that
manage to capture the consumers’ attention due to their discounts could
see a positive impact on its sales as this influences store choice
especially as the holiday season approaches.
Black
Friday which comes a month before Christmas, serves as a way for
retailers to kick off the holiday season shopping and influence customer
purchase. Consumers start shopping earlier thus they end up purchasing
more during the season.
According to 2015 data by KPMG
on how Black Friday discounts affected Christmas Shopping in the UK, it
found that with so much volume changing hands at discounted prices on a
single day at the end of November, it undoubtedly had an impact on the
more traditional sales periods creating two shopping peaks.
“Using
data from the BRC-KPMG Retail Sales Monitor, it is clear that, in
preceding years, shopping steadily intensified in the lead up to
Christmas Day. However, in 2014 a huge percentage of non-food sales were
brought forward to Black Friday, creating two shopping peaks rather
than one,” reported David McCorquodale, UK Head of Retail at KPMG.
“Consumers
are not necessarily spending more; they are just spending earlier and
more than ever hooked on a diet of discounts. Looking at the data, the
effects of Black Friday in 2014 resulted in much weaker pre-Christmas
and Boxing Day sales and, not only that, retailers actually saw a
distinct lull in spending during early December as consumers waited for
the next round of bargains to hit the shelves.”
“Consumers
will definitely conduct their own research from the start of the season
to when they go shopping in order to get the best value for their
money. The retailer with the best prices on most popular items such
electronics, household products, mobile phones and children toys among
others will enjoy the most purchases,” said Stella Kimani, a brand
strategist.
Indeed,
in a study conducted by US research company Purchased and published by
marketing intelligence service, WARC, retailers who can capture Black
Friday shoppers’ early stand to generate one third more sales than their
competitors.
“We found that the first store to
capture shopper traffic was able to generate an average of $121 in
sales, 31.5 per cent more than the second choice of store, which checked
in with only $92 while Black Friday shoppers tended to do their
homework – scouting sales and planning in advance – their actual
shopping patterns often failed to reflect this,” reported Purchased.
“Almost
60 per cent of the shoppers who planned to shop at store A first ended
up shopping at store B or just another store. And 32 per cent of the
switchers said they changed their minds simply because shopping at one
store was more convenient even though store A might have been their
first choice and another 31 per cent stepped away from their original
plan because they were influenced by a shopping partner.”
For
Kenyan retailers seeking to gain a competitive advantage in the market,
and increase sales during the holiday season, early discounts on
popular products could be key.
- African Laughter
No comments :
Post a Comment