Black Friday 2018 in South Africa. What do the numbers tell us?

Right before the biggest sale season of the year—Black Friday—analysts from Picodi.com conducted research and a survey among South Africans. The results of the research reveal what we can expect from Black Friday this year. From this report you’ll learn, among other things, if you can trust the sales that will be offered, what’s the consumers’ attitude toward Black Friday and how much South Africans are going to spend during Black Friday shopping spree which starts on 23rd November.

Expecting large discounts

Buyers will not waste the opportunity to save money on shopping. 66% of the surveyed South Africans admitted that they’re going to take part in the upcoming Black Friday sales. This is most likely the result of marketing campaigns—only 5 years ago Black Friday in South Africa didn’t stir up as many emotions as in the USA or the United Kingdom.

There are other numbers that confirm the serious intentions of consumers on that day. 87% of buyers save money just to do shopping. Let’s remember that Black Friday sales are usually associated with electronics and housewares which are the best-selling products. 2% of respondents decided to buy on installments on Black Friday. The remaining 11% declared that they earn enough to afford some bigger shopping.

During Black Friday, South Africans are going to do some serious shopping. Most consumers (40%) are going to buy 2-3 products, and another 40% are going to go on a shopping spree and buy more than 5 items. What’s more, 48% of buyers already have an idea what’s going to end up in their baskets. This can be due to the infinite number of guides to what’s worth buying and how to find the biggest discounts.

Black Friday symbolically opens the season of pre-Christmas sales. That’s why it’s a great opportunity for those who start searching for gifts in advance. 31% of consumers will take advantage of Black Friday exactly for this purpose—to buy Christmas gifts. However, in South Africa Black Friday is an occasion to get a present for yourself (64% of respondents chose this answer) or to buy something for your household (47%).

Are sales real?

Multiple reports about fake sales have no effect on experienced clients. 95% of respondents claim that they can find the real discounts among all the Black Friday offers and only 5% say that the sales are fictional and unworthy of the attention of consumers. Let’s remind that according to the last year’s statistics the average discount during Black Friday in South Africa reached 61%.

What does an average shopper look like?

The results of the surveys show that an average man will spend more money on sales than an average woman: 1850 ZAR and 1516 ZAR respectively.

Which age group is the most interested in Black Friday discounts? To check this out, we looked at last year’s statistics and compared the number of visits to our website on a regular Friday and on Black Friday. We noted a huge increase in traffic among all age groups. However, the biggest interest was among people aged 18-24 and 25-34: the growth of traffic reached 2674% and 2093% respectively.

The statistics also say that mobile devices dominated desktops. 49% of consumers did their shopping on mobile phones on Black Friday, 5% used tablets and 46% used desktops.

Black Friday in numbers

• 95% of respondents trust sales and can find the real discounts
• Half of customers participating in Black Friday don’t know what they’re going to buy yet and will buy things with attractive discounts
• 87% of respondents save money to take part in Black Friday
• 40% are going to more than 5 items on sales

With Picodi you can save not only during the Black Friday, but also throughout the year. You can combine discount codes with our cashback service to save up even more in shops such as AliExpress, Mr Price and Boardriders. You just need to sign up to Picodi.com and activate cashback before shopping.

Methodology

In the report, we used internal statistical data of the discount platform Picodi.com as well as the results of the survey conducted between 25th and 31th October 2018.

Public Use

Are you willing to share our statistics or infographics about Black Friday with your readers? Feel free to use all the data and infographics presented in this report for both commercial and non-commercial purposes as long as you indicate the author of the research (Picodi.com) with a link to this subpage.

Do you want to know more?

Are you a journalist or a blogger and are looking for information about the preferences of consumers in South Africa and other countries? We’d be glad to share both internal statistics and forecasts with estimations. Contact us at: contact.rsa@picodi.com.