Black Friday: Jumia Excites Nigerians With Huge Discounts on Products
Black Friday sales has started to gain traction thanks in part to e-commerce platforms like Jumia making it popular and more mainstream. It is not surprising though as its history is rooted in the United States where it is closely tied to the Thanksgiving Holidays.
Black Friday is the name given to the fourth Friday in November and is associated with the beginning of Christmas Shopping. The term originated in the early 1950s where shopkeepers used black ink to record profits and red ink to record losses. Since the day recorded huge sales and profit, the name was adopted and it has stuck since then.
Source: UGC
Over time, Black Friday has spread from the US to other countries and has been modified since then. The Monday after Black Friday has been named Cyber Monday for online shopping especially for those who could not go to stores to participate in the in-person shopping. To accommodate the demand for huge discounted products, it has been expanded in some places from a single shopping day to a week or weeks.
For instance, since 2005, Black Friday has become the busiest shopping day in the US. With sales rising year after year except in 2020 when in-person shopping dropped partly due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In the same year, however, online shopping went up surpassing in-person with a record 100 million shoppers. The same trend continued into 2021 where more people shopped online than in stores.
In Nigeria, Jumia has redefined the concept of Black Friday by not only retaining the single shopping day but expanding it into a four-week event making the larger part of the month of November an opportunity to purchase goods at discounted prices. Also embedded into the Black Friday sales is the Treasure Hunt and Wheel of Fortune, giving customers varieties of opportunities to enjoy discounted prices on products while also winning prizes and vouchers.
Nigeria’s foray into Black Friday participation began in 2013 when Jumia and another key e-commerce site, ran online Friday sales. The websites crashed that day as sales exceeded their projection. Since then, it has become a part of the country’s preparation for Christmas. The COVID-19 pandemic further made online shopping a necessity in 2020.
The trend has continued again in 2021 as this year’s Black Friday fell on the 26th of November but Jumia’s sale began November 5 with discounts of up to 51% across all categories the giant e-commerce offers, including fashion, home, beauty, toys, electronics and gadgets. The promotion which was supposed to end on November 30, was extended to give more Nigerians an opportunity to make last-minute purchases.
The sale and the extension was timely, as Nigerians begin to prepare for Christmas shopping and lookout for the best deals in light of current economic realities. According to Nairametrics, Nigeria’s inflation rate for the year 2021, so far, has averaged 17.28% between January and October 2021, while the 12-month average change currently stands at 16.96%. The tone for this was set in December 2020 when Nigeria’s inflation rate increased by 15.75%, the highest rate recorded in 3 years.
With many brands like Samsung, Dettol, Unilever, oraimo partnering with Jumia on select days throughout November to offer limited-time offers, the e-commerce site took the consumer reward system a step further with games, quizzes, deals and social media campaigns that left existing and loyal customers squealing for joy.
To launch the ninth edition of its annual Black Friday sales, Jumia made an iPhone 13 available to be purchased for less than ₦7,000 during the treasure hunt. Many more consumers benefited from other interesting activities like the wheel of fortune, 11:11 deals, free vouchers, flash sales, as well as free deliveries.
Non-customers were not left out as the e-commerce site gave Nigerians an opportunity to win up to ₦50,000 worth of vouchers with social media challenges.
The company has also allowed customers to enjoy discounts of up to 50% and free deliveries on the Jumia Food app during the period of the sales.
Jumia has continued to lead the Nigerian e-commerce industry with the wide range of products offered to its large customer base across Nigeria and beyond. The company has over six million products to be sold on its platform with over 10,000 active vendors, four million customers and 15 million monthly visitors.
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Source: Legit.ng
