Brands like Nykaa registered a 34% increase in unique visitors on the first day of Black Friday sale alone. Malls and other brands record a similar trend
By Bhavishya Bir and Anagha Ratna
New Delhi: The Black Friday sale has been a big success for several brands this year with brands and shopping centres alike registering a significant hike in footfalls and customers. Some brands even reported a doubling of their walkins during the period.
Even though business analysts had been predicting muted online holiday shopping this year, consumers were back in stores on Black Friday as shopper visits increased compared to last year. Shoppers are returning to a new normal after more than two years of pandemic living.
Black Friday sale started November 25, 2022, the last Friday of November, which is the convention. It is the day after Thanksgiving. This day unofficially marks the start of the Christmas shopping season in the US.
The phenomenon reached India a few years ago. Seeing the massive profits during this sale, several brands adopted the trend, offering huge discounts to customers.
Retailers are taking advantage of the opportunity and inventing different approaches to entice shoppers to spend. For both physical stores and e-commerce platforms, this is a chance to unload some post-Diwali unsold products.
Increase across the board
The Black Friday sale has only grown with every passing year.
“Along with unique deals, our unparalleled curations and interactive experiences such as Watch and Buy have driven extremely high engagement,” said a spokesperson from leading beauty brand Nykaa.
On just the first day of the Black Friday sale (rebranded as the Pink Friday sale), Nykaa recorded 8 lakh orders which translates to 400 orders per minute.
The Black Friday weekend went well for shopping centres as well.
“The footfall we got on the Black Friday weekend was approximately 50,000 which is visibly higher than a normal weekend. With the huge discounts and Black Friday offers, every retail store in the mall achieved a flattering revenue,” said a retail sales executive at Vega City Mall, Bengaluru.
He informed that sales were encouraging across fashion, beauty, home décor and other categories during this period.
Performance compared to last year
“In India, Black Friday is still an upcoming concept with the width and depth of discounts offered by brands definitely lesser than those in the US. However, we did see a lot more brands participating in the sales this year than last year,” said Bala Sarda, CEO & Founder, VAHDAM India.
Brands have also been marketing their Black Friday sales aggressively. And it appears that the increased awareness is translating into improved business.
Nykaa saw an increase of 34% in unique visitors from 4.3 million on last year’s Day 1 to 5.8 million on the same day this year.
“There is higher traffic of shoppers this year, especially in the fashion and digital appliance sectors. Consumers are attracted to heavy discounts. According to sales and footfall this year, I think we are going back to what we had before the pandemic with what we’re offering on Black Friday,” said a store manager from Phoenix Market City, Bengaluru.
The retailers had more than double walk-ins even on a weekday. “Normally, it is slow business from Monday to Thursday with crowds starting to come in from Friday. However, during the Black Friday sales, there is a 120 percent crowd even on a Monday,” Priyanka, F.C. at the Hunkemöller store in Select CITYWALK mall in New Delhi said.
Year-end is usually the time for cheer due to various festivities, giving retailers a chance to maximise their profits.
Pushpa Bector, Executive Director, of DLF Retail said, “At our properties, the season starts from early November, goes into the Black Friday sale weekend, and then ends some time around Valentine’s. Since October, we have seen consistent growth, with over 40% increase in terms of growth, compared to the same time pre-covid.”
