Shelves stocked, staff waiting . . .

Retailers ready for shopping onslaught on Black Friday

AS consumers wait with bated breath for the biggest shopping day of the year tomorrow, retailers and shopping centres are stocking shelves, opening earlier and bringing in more staff to welcome the crowds. With the hype around Black Friday mounting, some retailers expect to earn millions of rands in revenue on the day, with prices being slashed by up to 80%.

Shopping centres around the province have also extended trading hours and increased security for the retail promotion tomorrow.

Walmer Park portfolio manager Leonie Scheepers said the centre would be bringing four more security personnel and four extra cleaners to help with the influx of foot traffic.

“Many of our stores have indicated that they will be trading from 7am instead of the normal 9am and closing at 7pm on Friday night – and the relevant measures have been put in place to accommodate this,” Scheepers said.

Baywest Mall marketing manager Lindsay Steele said the mall would be stepping up its police and security presence as well.

“An expanded in-house security team will work with SAPS members to create a visible presence in and around the mall.”

The mall welcomed 50 000 shoppers last year and expects crowds to show up tomorrow, particularly with Baywest’s branches of Game and Dion Wired set to open their doors at midnight for eager shoppers.

“Last year, we had a phenomenal turnout, but shoppers were well behaved and snapped up the bargains,” Steele said.

“This year the participation of stores is even greater, and we’re expecting an even bigger turnout of shoppers,” she said.

“Given that we house the largest array of stores under one roof in the province, we are expecting shoppers from as far afield as Grahamstown, Port Alfred and Knysna.”

The popularity of Black Friday has grown so much that Shoprite’s 458 stores will be joining 202 Checkers stores in the campaign, spokeswoman Adele Kruger Taljaard said.

“The Black Friday trend had been gaining popularity around the world, and in 2014 Checkers became the first food retailer to introduce the country to deep-cut specials,” she said.

“Every year there is a significant increase in the hype and excitement around this one-day sales promotion. Therefore, all Shoprite and Checkers stores have done extensive planning to ensure that as many customers as possible will be able to take advantage of the special deals on offer.”

Pick n Pay marketing head John Bradshaw said the retailer would also be participating in promotions, offering consumers an ideal opportunity to wrap up their Christmas shopping early.

“We have bought a huge amount of stock to try and make sure that no customers are disappointed, and our supply chain colleagues have made special plans to make sure we have enough trucks to transport all the stock to stores.”

However, the popular online retailer Takealot plans to walk away with the lion’s share of Black Friday revenue.

Takealot chief marketing officer Julie-Anne Walsh said the site was anticipating sales revenue of between R80-million and R130-million over a five-day sales promotion.

“Takealot was the first retailer to bring Black Friday to South Africa in 2012, generating R1-million in sales that year,” Walsh said. “Since then, Black Friday sales have grown exponentially each year, generating R17-million in 2015 and R56-million last year.”

Walsh said discounts would stretch from 60% to 80% off over an offering of 15 000 products, which is expected to increase traffic to the site five-fold. “Not only does this promotion account for 5% of our annual gross merchandise value, but it is also our biggest day of the year in terms of acquiring new customers.”

She said the promotion was “exam time” for Takealot, testing their logistics systems.

“We make sure we have the right amount of stock in the warehouses so we do not run out of stock, but we also make sure we do not have too much stock.

“If the volumes do not come, then we sit with a whole lot of stock we will have to get rid of at even lower rates.”

Global shipping service Aramex was also gearing up for a busy weekend, Mark Mahoney, manager of e-commerce services at Aramex South Africa, said.

This is largely because consumers in South Africa and other emerging markets are making the most of Black Friday deals in the US and the UK, and using Aramex to ship the products.

“For some, the postal delivery option is too slow and too risky,” Mahoney said.

“Last year, our shipments grew by 31% between the third and fourth quarter.”

Shoppers were well behaved and snapped up the bargains