By David Adetula
Black Friday is the day following Thanksgiving Day in the United States (the fourth Thursday of November). Since the early 2000s, it has been regarded as the beginning of the Christmas shopping season in the US, and most major retailers open very early (and more recently during overnight hours) and offer promotional sales. Black Friday is not an official holiday, but California and some other states observe "The Day After Thanksgiving" as a holiday for state government employees, sometimes in lieu of another federal holiday such as Columbus Day.
In Nigeria, this day has also been adopted by several online stores to sell promotional goods. For 2015, some of the leading online stores have announced their Black Friday sales programme; Konga will have theirs on Thursday, 26th November, 2015 and Friday, 27th November, 2015. Another leading store, Jumia will have theirs on Friday, 27th November, 2015.
As at Wednesday, one of the leading online store, Jumia has disclosed the expected discounts for various categories of their goods. In the release, goods ordered from the Health & Beauty category will attract 70% discout. Also obviously having a huge discount is the Cameras & Electronics category with 65% discount. Others include the Women’s Clothing and Men’s Clothing with an expected 60% discount each, Women’s and Men’s Accessories will also attract 50% discount even as Men’s Shoes and Women’s Shoes get 55% discount. Phones and Computing categories will also attract 20% discount each. Konga, another top online store is yet to reveal its own discount although the store has insisted on a ‘Yakata’ fall sale.
Sale during Black Fridays are usually on first arrived, first served basis because of the huge traffic of online buyers who are always willing to participate in the greatly discounted sales. If the statistics released by Konga on its Black Friday 2014 (Yakata Sales) is something to go by, the store had 5x the amount of its usual daily traffic recording a maximum 1,659 orders placed within an hour. The same record revealed that over $3.5M (N600m) was made in the sales last year.
Even with the statistics from several online stores recounting the success of the Black Friday sales last year, the experience recount of many social media users who participated in the sales in 2014 was not palatable as some even find it hard to believe the sales happened. Some went hard on the online stores tagging it scam as they were not able to place their orders successfully within the stipulated period.
For students of Obafemi Awolowo University who are willing to participate in this year’s Black Friday sales, here are some tips you should take note of ;
1.) Get money that will get you some items.
2.) Register with the online store(s) you wish to buy from during the Black Friday sales before the day.
3.) Have a list of items you wish to buy during the sales so as to forestall distractions while trying to order by other goods.
4.) Fully charge your devices from where you will be accessing the internet.
5.) Locate a place where the signal of the network you will be accessing the internet with is strong. For those that will be using the INTECU service, areas like EDM, Health Centre have good reports.
6.) Sale is expected to begin 12:00am of the sale’s day. As such, it is advisable to start checking the portals of the online stores starting from that moment to be among the first buyers.
7.) Though I am aware Konga has announced a service for the Black Friday sales called ‘Konga Pays’ which offers a further 5% discounts for those that pay instantly with their credit cards but I strongly advise you opt for the ‘Pay on delivery’ method if available for the goods you wish to order. This is to ensure you verify if the good you order is in good condition before paying. I have a non-palatable experience with this.
NOTE: Black Friday sales will be coming up in virtually all major online stores (including Amazon, Ebay and others) across the globe as it is usually an international observation.
Finally, remember to order something for me (smiles). Goodluck!
Black Friday is the day following Thanksgiving Day in the United States (the fourth Thursday of November). Since the early 2000s, it has been regarded as the beginning of the Christmas shopping season in the US, and most major retailers open very early (and more recently during overnight hours) and offer promotional sales. Black Friday is not an official holiday, but California and some other states observe "The Day After Thanksgiving" as a holiday for state government employees, sometimes in lieu of another federal holiday such as Columbus Day.
In Nigeria, this day has also been adopted by several online stores to sell promotional goods. For 2015, some of the leading online stores have announced their Black Friday sales programme; Konga will have theirs on Thursday, 26th November, 2015 and Friday, 27th November, 2015. Another leading store, Jumia will have theirs on Friday, 27th November, 2015.
As at Wednesday, one of the leading online store, Jumia has disclosed the expected discounts for various categories of their goods. In the release, goods ordered from the Health & Beauty category will attract 70% discout. Also obviously having a huge discount is the Cameras & Electronics category with 65% discount. Others include the Women’s Clothing and Men’s Clothing with an expected 60% discount each, Women’s and Men’s Accessories will also attract 50% discount even as Men’s Shoes and Women’s Shoes get 55% discount. Phones and Computing categories will also attract 20% discount each. Konga, another top online store is yet to reveal its own discount although the store has insisted on a ‘Yakata’ fall sale.
Sale during Black Fridays are usually on first arrived, first served basis because of the huge traffic of online buyers who are always willing to participate in the greatly discounted sales. If the statistics released by Konga on its Black Friday 2014 (Yakata Sales) is something to go by, the store had 5x the amount of its usual daily traffic recording a maximum 1,659 orders placed within an hour. The same record revealed that over $3.5M (N600m) was made in the sales last year.
Even with the statistics from several online stores recounting the success of the Black Friday sales last year, the experience recount of many social media users who participated in the sales in 2014 was not palatable as some even find it hard to believe the sales happened. Some went hard on the online stores tagging it scam as they were not able to place their orders successfully within the stipulated period.
For students of Obafemi Awolowo University who are willing to participate in this year’s Black Friday sales, here are some tips you should take note of ;
1.) Get money that will get you some items.
2.) Register with the online store(s) you wish to buy from during the Black Friday sales before the day.
3.) Have a list of items you wish to buy during the sales so as to forestall distractions while trying to order by other goods.
4.) Fully charge your devices from where you will be accessing the internet.
5.) Locate a place where the signal of the network you will be accessing the internet with is strong. For those that will be using the INTECU service, areas like EDM, Health Centre have good reports.
6.) Sale is expected to begin 12:00am of the sale’s day. As such, it is advisable to start checking the portals of the online stores starting from that moment to be among the first buyers.
7.) Though I am aware Konga has announced a service for the Black Friday sales called ‘Konga Pays’ which offers a further 5% discounts for those that pay instantly with their credit cards but I strongly advise you opt for the ‘Pay on delivery’ method if available for the goods you wish to order. This is to ensure you verify if the good you order is in good condition before paying. I have a non-palatable experience with this.
NOTE: Black Friday sales will be coming up in virtually all major online stores (including Amazon, Ebay and others) across the globe as it is usually an international observation.
Finally, remember to order something for me (smiles). Goodluck!
