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South Africans can expect Black Friday 2020, which takes place on November 27, to be much bigger than before, with more online specials that will last longer.
This is the opinion of two industry experts, including Parcelninja CEO Justin Drennan and uAfrica Business Manager Anita Erasmus.
Game and Makro recently announced They will run Black Friday deals during November 2020, rather than restricting them to a five-day period.
Many other retailers are expected to do the same to avoid congestion for a short period amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Drennan told MyBroadband that Black Friday 2020 will be the biggest yet in South Africa, but they don’t expect it all to happen on November 27.
Instead, many retailers will run Black Friday specials for a week or even a month, as in the case of Makro and Game.
This is aimed at “stopping all the drama that happens in one day and aligning with the COVID-19 restrictions for Black Friday,” Drennan said.
Erasmus echoed these views, predicting that Black Friday sales will be less focused on the Black Friday weekend, but will run through the entire month of November.
“This will result in less pressure on the actual Black Friday weekend, which we believe will be beneficial for online stores as well as improving the customer experience,” he said.
Based on the increased acceptance of online shopping driven by COVID-19, Erasmus also believes that many more Black Friday sales will take place online compared to previous years.
“This is not only due to customers trying to avoid crowding in physical stores, but also to changes in shopping behavior that required many South Africans who had never shopped online before to start shopping online during the global pandemic. of COVID-19, “he said. .
Avoiding system problems
In previous years, many online stores crashed on Black Friday due to increased traffic when special offers were launched.
While this remains a risk, Drennan believes it won’t be as significant this year due to changes in technology.
“Many online businesses run on software-as-a-service (SaaS) platforms that are scalable and up to the challenge,” he said.
Payment platforms must also be prepared for the rebound in transactions after receiving a wake-up call in previous years.
The biggest problem is expected in logistics with tremendous pressure on couriers to deliver much higher volumes during the week of Black Friday.
Encouraging news is that there has been a big shift towards owner-driver models for courier companies that are much better suited than traditional models.
This means that the system can scale up or down quickly to acquire additional drivers when needed.
This should, at least in part, be able to address the higher delivery volumes expected during Black Friday 2020.
Erasmus added that the sudden and unexpected spike in e-commerce activity during the month of May 2020 has largely set them up for the peak of Black Friday this year.
“It forced us to analyze our business and make sure we can adapt accordingly on short notice and without notice,” he said.
Now read: Makro and Game Black Friday plans
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