Black Friday has finally come and gone, leaving mixed feelings in the hearts of many. This year's Black Friday event is by far one of the most publicized and hyped amongst others. It was beautifully crafted and sold to the us as the best thing that will ever happen to us, in terms of shopping. Now I ask, did it really live up to the hype?
Prior to Black Friday, many online malls made pulled extreme publicity stunts of just how much it was willing to discount to give you the best shopping experience. Let's examine a few big name brands.
Konga: Konga is the self acclaimed biggest online mall in Nigeria. Their version of Black Friday was called "Yakata". Konga advertised discounts during this two-day Yakata experience. A close analysis of this experience proves it failed woefully. Yes, deals were available, the server was secure and capable, but there was nothing special about their offers. The highest discount on their deals was 40%. This even came on the new Alcatel pop star smartphone that was exclusive to them. The phone sold at about 15,000 Naira. Not to be too critical about it, there was nothing special about this offer as the phone has features that fits it's price tag, so this offer was not a blessing to shoppers. Other products price increased two days to Yakata and when Yakata began, it was slashed to a little below it's original price. Shame. On the 'Bryte' side, the best offer I saw was the 7inches Bryte One Octacore Tablet. With a 2GB RAM, 8GB ROM,8MP rear camera and 5MP front camera and latest android O.S for a good price of 15,900 Naira.
Jumia: The self acclaimed biggest shopping mall in Africa.
Certainly, Jumia was the platform most people in Africa looked to. The Black Friday was much publicized by them and by far outshone Konga's yakata. Sadly, it was a normal shopping day. The best offer by them was a very short flash sale of Infinix hot 2, 1GB RAM and 16GB ROM at 8,950 naira. Everything else was normal!. Very normal. I stumbled on an offer of PlayStation 4 1TB for 79,900 Naira at a 40% discount. Laughable.
Yudala: The self acclaimed biggest offline Black Friday sellers. Without being too critical to Yudala, they could do better in five years time. The offers on their site was still the same, slashed by a few naira that most likely the shipping fee will make you pay again. Their offline stores are so scanty that you may travel to actually find them.
A friend on Facebook said, "Black Friday is just a clever ploy to make you spend more on things you don't really need". Another said," The prices were just slashed by 100 Naira".
Where are the winners and losers of Black Friday?What was your experience like on Black Friday??? Was in so in your region? Will next year be better?
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