Black Friday in South Africa: will we get proper discounts this year?

Black Friday sales have declined every year since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, with South Africans not really seeing the need for it anymore.

After easing of the pandemic’s restrictions, it was expected sales would pick up, with specials that would fill stores, however, this was not the case due to load shedding.

Experts in the retail sector believe 2024 is the year Black Friday will make a comeback, with a prediction of 20 – 25% off specials.

ALSO READ: Retails’ data analysis: SA shoppers are so over Black Friday

What will Black Friday look like?

A presentation conducted by the Bureau of Market Research, commissioned by Capital Connect shows that the wholesale, retail and fuel sectors will boom this Black Friday, followed by another boom in the festive session.

Steven Heilbron, chief executive officer at Capital Connect said general dealers are expected to generate higher sales this Black Friday, amounting to R10,5 billion. These are stores that sell necessities like groceries. The textile, clothing, and footwear sector is expected to generate at least R5,6 billion.

Household furniture, appliances, and equipment are expected to generate R1.5 billion. The food, beverages and tobacco from specialised stores are estimated to generate at least R278 million in sales.

ALSO READ: PODCAST: How consumers shopped on Black Friday

How retailers can capitalise on Black Friday

Heilbron also included how retailers can capitalise on Black Friday. It is advised that retailers must focus on products they know their clients will buy. Retailers can look at which products were previously bought most and fast by consumers.

“Customer touchpoints need to be properly aligned.” This speaks to whether retailers have implemented or looked at the concerns which were previously raised by customers.

There also needs to be enough cash flow that will be able to sustain the business and pay employees at the end of the month.

Recorded trends

Dr Requier Wait, chief researcher at the Bureau of Market Research speaking at the Capital Connect Black Friday roundtable on Thursday morning said they have noted an increase in the desire to purchase essential goods.

However, a lot of South Africans want to see specials that have value for their money and practicality in them.

Their research also shows that consumers would rather buy at particular stores that have mixed goods to minimise the amount of time they spend shopping, thus it is predicted general dealers will do better than other sectors this year.    

ALSO READ: Consumers expected to spend about R7 billion more this Black Friday

Last year’s failures

2023’s Black Friday was close to non-existence, as many sectors were still battling with load shedding, while some were still trying to recover from the effects of the pandemic. Deals were not looking good to consumers, while some stores did not have enough stock.

But things are looking a bit up this year following the suspension of load shedding.

South Africans have started to buy more frozen goods because there is no fear that there will be load shedding which will cause the food to be spoilt.

The health of SMEs

Speaking on the health of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the retail sector was Lincoln Mali, from Lesaka Technologies. He said it is important for people to look forward and not at the past, and he believes this is what most SMEs are doing.

Mali touched on how a lot of businesses were negatively impacted by the 2021 unrest, the pandemic, then load shedding, and floods, but dwelling on these will not do good for anyone.  

He said business confidence has been up since the formation of the GNU. What entrepreneurs need to look at is exploring available financial opportunities.   

Competition and Social media

Dr Wait said the e-commerce retailers usually faced competition from international companies such as Temu and Shein. But with the new tax that has been imposed by the South African Revenue Services (Sars), things might look better for South African e-commerce retailers.

He also acknowledged that social media plays a significant role in reaching customers and releasing specials

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