Do Kenyans Understand the Essence of Black Friday?

Unlike in the western countries, where black Friday is characterized by long lines of people braving cold days and nights outside major shopping malls, in Kenya, black Friday is simply a period of days.

The experience is also mostly online where a handful of sites participate with almost zero walk-in stores taking part, this is according to a recent GeoPoll rapid survey.

On 17^th November 2016, GeoPoll  conducted a Rapid survey on Black Friday using the GeoPoll mobile application. 103 men and 137 women filled the questionnaires on their spending habits during the Black Friday period which occurs in the month of November before the Thanksgiving US holiday.

The survey found out the following:

Black Friday Advertisements

The data showed that the dynamic ads most marketers use to re-target their audiences may not work with regard to black Friday deals advertisements.  Different target audiences change their shopping habits during this period from the normal wants to needs.

Online Shopping budget

Respondents were asked how they had prepared for the shopping experience and 44% said that they have saved towards it. What most marketers should still take notice of before counting their chickens, is 77% said that they were willing to spend between 10K -20K while 100K and above spenders  accounted for only 2% which means most of the users are still not willing to spend on high end items although the prices will be quite reasonable. This is despite the fact that 36% of the respondents are looking to buy electronics.

Online Shopping trends among women and Men

The shopping spend of the respondents also highlighted that the 25 percent of the female demographic is looking to spend on electronics while a good 24 percent will also be spending on male fashion items. Naturally, marketers would decide to market household items to women who are assumed to be the main household shoppers but should not be the case as only 17 percent are looking forward to household shopping.

50 percent of men unsurprisingly, will be looking to get electronics with men’s fashion closely following with 32 percent. A twist of events came in when only a mere 2 percent said that they are willing to get women’s fashion which is a massive contrast to 24 percent of women who are looking to indulge in shopping for men’s fashion. Surprising enough is the fact that 9 percent of the male respondents mentioned that household items would be their priority. Notice how household items are a priority to men as compared to women’s fashion?

Kenya’s Leading online shopping site

Jumia is the king of online malls in Kenya with 72 percent of the respondents stating that that would be their ideal site. Killimall comes in with 23 percent bragging rights of the online stake while Rupu had 5 percent of the respondents backing it. Ultimately, the site that will wear the crown will still be the site that has the highest number of last click attribution to sale other than just consumer’s presumptuous shopping tendencies.