By Rahab Mbiriti (Statistician)
An average Kenyan will spend around 7,500 Shillings during Black Friday sales, on clothes, electronics and shoes according to a survey carried out by Picodi.com – a global discounts provider.
This year’s Black Friday falls on the 23rd of November. Black Friday is a phenomenon for a reason because data from Google suggests that in the last 5 years, the interest of Internet users in this event has more than doubled. Every year, in almost every country, the shopping fever results in new sales records.
The event, previously known only in the US, has gained a lot of popularity in the rest of the world within just a few years. In Kenya, 48% of respondents in the survey carried out by Picodi.com know what Black Friday is.
The survey suggests that 30 percent of Kenyans will participate in Black Friday this year, an increase of 19.5 percentage points compared to 2017 where only 10.5 percent participated.
Majority of Black Friday shoppers will shop online constituting of 60 percent of the total shoppers, the rest will either use the traditional offline method (18 percent) or the multichannel, which is both online and traditional offline methods combined (22 percent).
Boosting the Economy
Sales on Black Friday have been known to surge in numbers as compared to regular days. The global average of sales grows by 624 percent. Sales in Kenya are estimated to grow by 492 percent compared to Pakistan’s 11525 percent growth in sales which is the highest in the world.
Investors examine Black Friday sales so as to measure the health of the retail industry of a country. Economists believe that spending drives economic growth and activity. Therefore, if Black Friday spending is low the health of the economy is too.