AI won’t replace market research. But it will expose weak strategy
Much of the broader conversation around AI in market research assumes conditions that do not consistently exist across many African markets, writes Soyinka Witness.
BLACK FRIDAY
SA consumers shopped around more and spent less on Black Friday
By our News Team | 2023
More people also took advantage of deals to buy everyday items, rather than spending on big-ticket luxury goods.
Although the volume of Black Friday and Cyber Monday in South Africa sales increased over the previous year, data from payment service provider, Ecentric Payment Systems, shows that the value of transactions, and the timing of purchases made, indicates that local consumers are carefully shopping around while also spending less.
At the same time, says Wesley Fetter, Product Manager at the company, consumers went for everyday items instead of luxuries. This indicates that they had been waiting for deals on daily needs and, perhaps, stocking up on non-perishable goods.
Photo by Karolina Grabowska from Pexels
According to Fetter, the value of the spend was, on average over the extended Black Friday period, behind the past few years in real terms. This shows the pressure consumers are under.
Companies that use Ecentric’s payment dashboard to monitor sales showed a 5,06% decline in transaction volume, and, in real terms, value dropped 12%.
Shift in trends when it comes to peak days
“We saw retailers start offering sale prices ahead of the traditional 24 November date, which also led to a shift in trends when it comes to peak days,” Fetter says.
Online and retail sales both peaked on November 25, the day after Black Friday. This is an indication that people wanted to avoid the queues that are typical of Black Friday.
Andrew Wilmot, Customer Experience Executive at Ecentric, notes that there was more online growth between 2021 and 2022 than this year.
“Ahead of next year, retailers need to focus on offering more deals as South Africa continues to battle to right the economy in the face of daily loadshedding (scheduled power outages), says Wilmot.
“Whichever way you look at it, South Africans are battling and want more value for their money.”
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