Nigerians buy into black Friday

Black Friday is a day of bazaar sales, where sales outlets display goods to interested customers at best bargain prices unlike any other day. It has become the biggest shopping day of the year, when retailers knock prices across much of their stock to kick-start the gift-buying season.

“Black” has traditionally been applied to days with major stock market crashes, such as when an attempt to manipulate the gold market led to a Black Friday in September 1869.

The term was first used in the shopping context more than 50 years ago by Philadelphia police officers to describe the chaotic day after Thanksgiving when the city was overrun with the traffic of consumers flocking to the Christmas sales and sports fans travelling to the annual Army vs Navy American football game.

Retailers tried to rename the day “Big Friday”, but it didn’t stick. It is also believed that the name comes from the day when many retailers, which do not make a profit until the Christmas trading period, move from the red into the black.

The culture which is completely alien to Nigeria, until a few years ago, is already gaining momentum.

Thanks to online sales portals, many Nigerians, especially upwardly mobile individuals had a taste of it last year when they announced different bonanza sales for customers.
While some stores are brandishing up to 50 per cent discount on products, some others flaunt a glamorous 90 per cent discount. Ecommerce sites have refused to be left out of the frenzy and are all making plans to outdo one another.

Indeed, online shopping is super cool because it is the most convenient of all forms of shopping, especially if you work on a tight schedule.

Read also: Desperate, NNPC sends DSS, EFCC after marketers

However, because of hackers and spammers, it is important to be security conscious as you leap from site to site on Black Friday. While some people are security conscious, they still do not know what to look out for while shopping.

As day is expected to witness a soar in sales of items, the Centre for Retail Research estimates that online spending on Black Friday may reach £966m. It expects total Black Friday sales to climb to £1.39bn and shopping over the entire weekend to near £3.5bn.

Visa Europe’s estimate is even more conservative, predicting that £721m will be spent online on Black Friday, up from £616m last year. Face-to-face spending will increase by four per cent to £1.19bn.

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