Retailers are hoping for a safe Black Friday
Bargain hunters need to avoid crowds to minimise risk of being infected by Covid-19
Snaking lines at midnight and customers storming retail stores are synonymous with Black Friday, but that was before mandatory social distancing.
The biggest event of the retail calendar will be different in 2020 as bargain hunters need to avoid crowds to minimise their risk of being infected by Covid19.
A weaker Black Friday could undermine efforts to revive declining retail revenues after a devastating year for the industry, with shops that didn t sell
’ food and medicine shut down for a month in the hard lockdown.
Statistics underpin how consumer buying has plummeted. Household spend on clothing and shoes dropped 91.5% in the second quarter compared with the first three months of the year, according to Stats SA.
Retailers need to make up lost ground and Black Friday is their chance to do so.
In 2019, the bargain shopping day was so successful BankServ Africa, Africa s largest automated clearing house, recorded credit card sales of R6bn, up from R2.9bn in 2018, with a 36% growth in the number of card transactions.
Investec economist Lara Hodes says: Black Friday, an important event in the retail calendar, is perhaps even more significant this year, aiding retailers in clawing back some lost revenue during the initial, stringent lockdown phase.”
Matthew Leighton, spokesperson for OneDayOnly, a website selling goods on promotion, says a few years ago the website would have had to go to the moon and back to secure
“” specials for Black Friday.
Now it is such an integral part of the SA calendar, suppliers plan to provide goods at a discount.
It s harder to find deals leading “’ up to Black Friday,” Leighton said.
To meet consumer expectations and comply with Covid19 social-distancing requirements, retailers will implement crowd control and increase the number of days with Black
Friday specials. Massmart Holdings s discount
’ retailer Game, which always invests in a big Black Friday event, will offer specials from November 1 and is upping staff levels for the month. Game MD Andrew Stein “said Black Friday is a wellestablished
“promotion that consumers plan to participate in. We believe that this will continue to be the case this year.
”
Game is partnering with Uber Eats to deliver some of its products and is improving its online shopping experience.
Retail executive at Pick n Pay John Bradshaw says to prevent stores from becoming overcrowded, they have extended
“our in-store deals to run over two weeks and increased our online offers.”
But will Black Friday help retailers win back sales?
PwC economist Christie Viljoen doesn t think Black Friday
’ will be a magic wand for
“” retailers.
I don t think there is real “’ amazing news that losses from the lockdown will be made up in the fourth quarter. The economy is not recovering enough,” he said.
Viljoen is sceptical about consumers ability to buy on
’ promotion during the month despite retailers extended offers.
’ As the private sector payday only falls on Black Friday, customers may not have money in the days leading up to the event.
Hodes says retailers will have to ensure their online offerings are world class in
“order to take advantage of the likely increase in online buying.”
Leighton of OneDayOnly expects the site s sales to be
’ comparable to 2019 as more people became comfortable with online shopping during the lockdown.
GeoPoll, a market research site, surveyed 400 SA shoppers in 2019 and found 67% shopped only in-store, which means crowd avoidance could dampen 2020 s sales.
’
A quiet Black Friday will be bad news for a battered economy as the category trade, which includes the retail sector, made up 13% of SA s GDP
’ between April and June.
Craig Lubbe, CEO of Bidorbuy, an online marketplace, however, thinks consumers may be the winners as retailers need to make space for new clothing styles and the latest technology.