Black Friday Fever: Brands witness record shopping spree

Global shopping culture burst onto the Indian retail scene on Friday like never before. Black Friday sale, which typically signals the start of Christmas shopping in the West, resonated across India as multinationals as well as home-grown brands wooed customers with deals that only Diwali brought till now.

After making a debut of sorts in 2019 in India, Black Friday sales had gone muted during the pandemic. This time it was a chance for retailers to hit it big, both online and offline, according to analysts. Early estimates suggest Black Friday sales to be around 50 per cent higher than that in 2019.

Although actual numbers are not available yet, DLF Retail has experienced ‘’record’’ sales this year. Calling it bigger and better than ever before, Pushpa Bector, executive director at DLF Retail, said, ‘’at our properties, the season starts with the Black Friday sale and ends sometime around Valentine’s.” Specifically referring to Black Friday, she said, ‘’we anticipate this sale to bring in record breaking numbers for us.’’ In terms of categories, clothes top the list of preference, followed by beauty at a close second and then consumer electronics.

Quest Mall in Kolkata pegged the Black Friday sales at 40-50 per cent higher. “While silent sales began at the start of the week, brands started to advertise only later, resulting in higher sales,” said Mukesh Kumar, CEO at Quest Mall.

E-commerce sites also offered steep discounts.

Tata Cliq Luxury indicated a 60-70 per cent growth over last year. “The Black Friday sale is one of our flagship events, which began on November 23 and will go on until November 28,’’ said Gitanjali Saxena, business head, Tata CLIQ Luxury.

Brands such as Armani Exchange, BOSS, Brooks Brothers, Calvin Klein, Lacoste, and Tommy Hilfiger in the apparel category are offering 10–50 per cent off on the platform. In the footwear category, brands including Aldo, Dune London, Hoka and Steve Madden have announced up to 40–50 per cent off.

Beauty and personal care e-commerce platform Nykaa started Pink Friday sales on November 21 and it will continue till November 28. It witnessed as much as 12fold jump in revenue on the first day of sales, the company said. Its luxury brands saw an increase of 20 times compared to regular days. It had 400 orders every minute, according to a Nykaa statement. Giving a sense of the Black Friday sale landscape, the company said 57 per cent of its purchases were made by shoppers from tier 2 and tier 3 cities collectively.

Among brands, Lacoste, for instance, is looking at a 50 per cent increase in Black Friday sales compared to 2019. The brand is offering discounts upto 50 per cent both online as well as offline. Woodlands too witnessed a growth in Black Friday sales.

“We have seen a 15-20 per cent increase in sales on this day over the last few years of celebrating this occasion because customers happily execute all of their parked purchases on a single day. We anticipate similar momentum this year,” Pavandeep Singh, vice-president (growth strategy), Woodland, said.

Black Friday as a concept began in the US and then picked up globally as retailers offer heavy discounts to shoppers the day after Thanksgiving.