South African companies and consumers are already preparing themselves for Black Friday 2019 \u2013 which has quickly become the biggest shopping day of the year.<\/p>\n
BankservAfrica, the continent’s largest automated payments clearinghouse, said that it processed a total of 581,189 online transactions over the 2018 Black Friday weekend.<\/p>\n
404,594 online transactions were recorded on Black Friday (up 55%) while Cyber Monday hit 176,595 transactions \u2013 up 36% from 2017 (129,458).<\/p>\n
The most expensive single transaction for Black Friday was over R6 million, while for Cyber Monday this reached R5 million.<\/p>\n
BusinessTech spoke to a number of retailers and experts about how best to prepare yourself for Black Friday 2019.<\/p>\n
Not just one day<\/strong><\/p>\n While Black Friday 2019 is scheduled to take place on 29 November, a number of retailers have already confirmed that they will be hosting sales well before the actual day.<\/p>\n Makro has confirmed that its Black Friday sale will take place over five days with the sale dubbed \u2018Black 5 Day’.<\/p>\n Other stores – such as Game – have confirmed that they will be opening some stores at midnight, and other stores at 06h00.<\/p>\n BankservAfrica’s data shows that the majority of Black Friday 2018 shopping took place between 08h00 \u2013 09h00, while Cyber Monday shoppers started a bit later at 10h00 \u2013 11h00.<\/p>\n Smoother experience\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n While Black Friday has long been associated with crowds and chaos, South African retailers say they are working on a number of plans to make this the smoothest Black Friday yet.<\/p>\n Makro said that it is improving its checkout process by reducing queues through the mobile pay-point system.<\/p>\n The retailer said that it will also continue its partnership with Uber, offering discounts on rides to and from their stores.<\/p>\n Massmart said that it is also making a number of changes to its\u00a0 logistics operations.<\/p>\n This will include increasing the number of staff and security at all its stores, and implementing well-supervised \u2018snake-queues\u2019 in the staging areas outside the entrances of some of our busiest stores.<\/p>\n Downtime<\/strong><\/p>\n Despite these improved logistics,\u00a0 consumers should still prepare themselves for downtime.<\/p>\n According to PwC <\/a><\/strong>for companies of all sizes, the risk of website downtime, stock shortages and a lack of capacity at call centres are real risks during Black Friday.<\/p>\n Retailers are challenged by short-term needs \u2013 getting customers in and out \u2013 with long-term reputational challenges of service delivery falling short.<\/p>\n Unusual deals<\/b><\/p>\n While Black Friday is often seen as a day for traditional retail and tech purchases, a wide category of stores are expected to offer deals on the day.<\/p>\n Supersonic, RSAWEB and MTN have all confirmed to MyBroadband<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>that they will be hosting deals on the day.<\/p>\n For Black Friday 2018 BusinessTech<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>also covered various deals on cars, travel, lingerie, supplements and even tattoos.<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n