Black Friday seems to have lost its Nigeria shine

shakirudeen taiwo

November 21, 2017 3:32 PM

With Black Friday less than four days away it appears Nigerians may not be in the mood to shop.

Black Friday is a name given to the day after Thanksgiving Day in the United States which usually falls on the fourth Thursday of November.

It is seen to be the beginning of the country's biggest festive shopping period ahead of the Christmas holidays since 1952.

Most major retailers open early and longer than their usual closing times to offer promotional sales and discount prices on select products.

Black Friday appeared to gain recognition in 2013 when the first Black Friday sale occurred. This was at a time when eCommerce was starting to appear on the scene and make an impact in the business atmosphere.

Nigerian e-commerce players like a large number of countries worldwide have adopted the Black Friday as a marketing technique and also a means of generating an increase in sales.

Upon close observation, ahead of this year's Black Friday on November 24, there has been a thaw in interest from Nigeria's online community.

Also Read: 5 'Black Friday' shopping tips that you need to know

Based on Google Trends, it can be closely estimated that out of 36 states only 19 had a value of 50 and above.

The remaining 16 states had less than a value of 50 and even a score of 0 which means “Black Friday” was less than 1% as popular as the peak value of 100 in Cross River state.

In the top 5 states that show the most search interest in “Black Friday,” only Rivers State is a highly populated state. Other highly populated states like Lagos and Kano showed a lesser search interest in “Black Friday”.

The top five states with high search interest are Sokoto (100), Nasarawa (73), Borno (72), Benue (67) and Ogun State (66).

This may be due to a few factors like average cost of living, population demographics and average income per household. While states like Lagos are believed to be a prime target audience for eCommerce outlets like Jumia and Konga, it seems to be that they may not after all be the biggest buyers of Black Friday sales.

shakirudeen taiwo

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