Digital advertising agency Jetweb, has kept a close eye on Black Friday through social listening data for the last three years. Digital and social expert and managing director of Jetweb, Bianca Quinn-Diavasatos, shares some of these stats.
In 2015 there was 4,719 mentions of Black Friday on social and other online platforms in South Africa. It increased in 2016 to 15,507 mentions. Most of the conversation last year happened in the week prior to Black Friday itself. So, if activity last week is anything to go by, then there will be substantially more talk of Black Friday this year than last. So far, there have been 15.9k more posts/mentions than last year.
Most brands have been seeing 20 mentions or less per day during the last week. The most mentioned brands were Samsung and Takealot. The most mentioned brands last year were Game, Makro, Checkers, and Pick n Pay, and they bulked largest again this year. Malls were not much discussed, with Gateway Mall receiving only 8 mentions and Menlyn Mall, the most – only 22.
60% of the online conversation is by 21 to 34-year olds.
The increased traffic and popularity of Black Friday has become the biggest headache of the year for web and app developers. It is important to ensure that you can handle the increased online traffic. A lot of the sales will start at midnight or in the early morning hours that will hopefully assist brands to distribute traffic throughout the day.
In the US Black Friday seems to be dying. That’s according to data from GPShopper, which tracks consumer behaviour. It turns out, customers are really not into Black Friday. A full 81% fees too stressed around the holiday shopping season in general, with 45% marks Black Friday as the most stressful time to shop.
And with online shopping, consumers are increasingly realising they don’t need to do all their shopping on one day. The majority would prefer to shop in the second week of December. Weirdly, a full 12% of consumers would prefer to shop after Christmas, to capitalise on the post-holiday sales, even though their recipients would get their presents a little late.
