MENA’s Biggest Black Friday On Record – Brands More Competitive Than Ever
CNNB Solutions, MENA’s leading direct-to-consumer (D2C) e-commerce enabler, is predicting the region’s biggest online shopping event on record. CNNB Solutions, which provides innovative end-to-end strategies and services for brands to optimize their e-commerce business, says that brands could see online traffic spikes 500 per cent higher than usual during the days of and around Black Friday– that’s six times more people shopping online at any one time.
Nicolas Bruylants, co-founder and CVO of CNNB Solutions said, “Whether it’s a Black, White, or Yellow Friday, we predict that this year’s figures for online shopping will be a new record for the MENA region. During the seven-day period starting from Thanksgiving Thursday, our predictive data shows online shopping spikes could be up to six times higher than a typical week.
With the pandemic acceleration of online shopping adoption, underlying growth of e-commerce fueled by flourishing customer demand and a range of highly competitive offers, MENA brands should be prepared for their busiest week ever.”
With the onset of COVID-19, shoppers switched from in-store to online retail. It became the dominant mode of shopping in 2020 and that trend has continued.
CNNB Solutions also estimates that turnover for online brands during the month of November could be up to three times more than over a standard month. However, the business warns that brands must be ready across several areas to ensure they don’t face potential negativity from consumers.
Bruylants continued, “Businesses must have the right marketing, offers and calendar in place, but this is often all they consider. To have a truly successful Black Friday, brands must ensure they have the right stock level, IT infrastructure, logistics, and customer support in place, optimized for these huge spikes in sales.”
Most Black Friday deals start days earlier and end days later than the actual day, while the competition is extremely fierce. After Thanksgiving, the average Black Friday discounts increase to 37 per cent. Research by Google shows that product review searches in MENA increase by 45 per cent during the week of Black Friday, while according to a survey by consulting firm Simon-Kucher & Partners awareness of Black Friday is at 100 per cent in UAE and 98 per cent in Saudi Arabia.
CNNB Solutions has D2C e-commerce and e-distribution partnerships with dozens of regional and international brands including household names such as L’Oréal, Lancôme and Swiss Arabian Perfumes. The business deploys intelligent strategies across MENA countries including UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Oman, Kuwait and Bahrain and support them to maximize sales during the busiest online weekend of the year by preparing all infrastructure to welcome the surge in sales (stock planning, website load, website speed, UX, set objectives, logistics, customer support and after sales).
To find out more about D2C e-commerce and how it could help your business, visit www.cnnbsolutions.com.
