Most Nigerian e-commerce platforms which offered some form of price slash for the ‘Black Friday’ and cyber Monday sales last weekend have come out with success stories recorded.
While most of the Nigerian e-commerce platforms like Konga, Jumia, kaymu, payporte and the latest online and offline retail chain store, Yudala, promised huge discounts and gave said discounts, others resorted to underhand tactics in conducting their Black Friday business.
Tope Arigbabu of Kaymu, told BusinessDay that the company recorded the highest amount of sales for Black Friday than any in any other price slash bonanza they have had.
“A lot of people bought so many things because there were various price cuts on different products. We even had a phone that was buy-one-get-one -free,” she said.
Composite retail chain Yudala, broke boundaries by hosting the first ever offline (in-store) and online black Friday sales in Nigeria. Its five day Black Friday sales which went live from Thursday, 26, November till Monday, 30, November 2015, both online on the Yudala website and offline in every Yudala store nationwide recorded great turn out in all its stores and positive response from buyers and winners on twitter who expressed joy at the idea of Yudala giving surprise free gifts to customers at the black Friday in store sales.
Emeka Opara, one of Yudala’s customers said on twitter, “thanks for keeping shared faith. Took deliveries made today from @yudalaonline.”
Another first recorded by Yudala was the delivery of bought items by drones. It was the first time this has ever been done.
Olumide Jegede commented on the history made in Lagos with the first drone delivery, tweeting, “Yudala just made the Black Friday so cool with its drone delivery.”
Chief Executive Officer, Yudala Nigeria, Dave Ibelegbu, said that Yudala offered Nigerians the unique opportunity to take part in the annual initiative by removing the usual challenges faced with online traffic.
“This year, Nigerians experienced the first ever offline and online black Friday sales in the history of the country. Customers did not have to experience the usual challenge of not being able to place orders online due to traffic,” he said.
Meanwhile, Payporte, announced on twitter that the company for the first time ran on four servers concurrently to withstand the online pressure.
‘Black Friday’ is the Friday after the American Thanksgiving celebration and it is one of the major shopping days of the year in the United States -falling anywhere between November 23 and 29, every year.
The term “Black Friday” was coined in the 1960s to mark the kick-off to the Christmas shopping season. ‘Black’ refers to stores moving from the “red” to the ‘black’, back when accounting records were kept by hand and red ink indicated a loss, and black a profit.
Ever since the start of the modern Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in 1924, the Friday and Monday after Thanksgiving have been known as the unofficial start to a bustling holiday shopping season, with huge sales on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, which is the Monday after the Thanksgiving holiday, created by marketing companies to persuade people to shop online.
As retailers began to realise that they could draw big crowds by discounting prices, Black Friday and cyber Monday became the days to shop, even better than last minute Christmas sales. Nigerian retailers have recently jumped on the bandwagon, so bargain hunters in Nigeria can get the chance to get festive deals.
Jumoke Akiyode
