It\u2019s been four years since Black Friday and Cyber Monday made their mark on South Africa\u2019s retail landscape, with local business pointing to record growth over the period.<\/p>\n
According to Absa, there\u2019s also no lack of strategic thinking done by retailers in getting people to view their websites or visit their stores.<\/p>\n
“While retailers are good at keeping their sales tactics under wraps, there are a few things to be aware of during this period,” Absa said.<\/p>\n
Below it outlined five things to consider before shopping this Black Friday.<\/p>\n
The ‘on sale’ trick<\/strong><\/p>\n Have you done your homework and kept a pricing record of the goods you want?<\/p>\n Independent investment analyst, Chris Gilmour, notes that in South Africa there\u2019s no legislation that states retailers must show what the price of a product has been for the last three months or what the price is currently.<\/p>\n This means that retailers can mark an item as \u2018on sale\u2019 – when compared to its historic and current price, it\u2019s probably not.<\/p>\n Loss leaders<\/strong><\/p>\n If you\u2019ve been at a sale and purchased regular priced items, the odds are that you\u2019ve been drawn in by a loss leader pricing strategy.<\/p>\n This is when a product is deliberately sold below its market price.<\/p>\n “This\u00a0is to get people into the store and, once they\u2019re there, to get them to buy as much as possible of something, at prices that are the same as what they\u2019ve always been,” said Gilmour.<\/p>\n He cautions for consumers to approach days like Black Friday with caution, \u201ccaveat emptor \u2013 buyer beware.\u201d<\/p>\n Online vs. In-store Offers<\/strong><\/p>\n Online and in-store offers can and do differ.<\/p>\n Paul van de Wall, head of e-commerce at Makro, mentions that while you will be able to find the majority of offers across their online site and in-store, there are ‘products that are online only and some that are in store only.’<\/p>\n Just keep in mind that this strategy is to get you to do the most important thing that retailers want you to do on Black Friday and Cyber Monday \u2013 spend.<\/strong><\/p>\n Spreading out the sales<\/strong><\/p>\n Another strategy used to keep you spending constantly is adding new deals, some of which are on offer for a limited time.<\/p>\n CMO at Takealot, Julie Walsh, notes that the retailer will be adding \u201chundreds of new deals over the five day period\u201d as a way to provide shoppers with multiple opportunities to buy new products.<\/p>\n This may seem exciting, but have you considered the implications on your wallet? If you were shown all the offers together, there\u2019s likely to be some purchasing hesitation.<\/p>\n What better way to combat that hesitation than to make you split one big purchase into multiple small ones over a longer period. Smart, right?<\/p>\n Read the Ts&Cs<\/strong><\/p>\n Particularly when it comes to stores that already offer price matching, like Game.<\/p>\n A quick glance at their Ts&Cs shows that their offer to \u2018beat any price\u2019 does not apply on one-day sales like Black Friday and Cyber Monday.<\/p>\n
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