Takealot’s big Black Friday mystery
Takealot has been quiet on its Black Friday this year, and it remains to be seen how the South African e-commerce giant will approach the sales event during which one customer spent R376,000 on a single order in 2023.
The online retailer has held five-day sales surrounding Black Friday in 2022 and 2023, with deals going live at one minute past midnight on the day.
Black Friday 2024 falls on Friday, 29 November — the Friday after Thanksgiving in the US. During the event, many stores offer highly promoted sales at discounted prices and often open their doors early.
Takealot dubs its event the Blue Dot Sale, encompassing Black Friday weekend, Cyber Monday, and Takealot Tuesday.
The retailer said the sale has consistently broken its own records each year. During recent events, it shipped an order every second during the Blue Dot Sale.
In 2023, Takealot introduced the ability for customers to order some Blue Dot Sale deals through TakealotNOW — its on-demand delivery service through Mr D.
It said the service would enable customers to order Black Friday deals and deliver them to their door within minutes.
The online marketplace operator released its first-ever TakealotNOW Blue Dot Sale deals at 22:00 that Thursday.
Following the event in 2023, the e-commerce giant revealed that one customer had spent R360,000 on a single order, while another made as many as 29 orders during the event.
This was a marked increase from the R190,000 order placed by a customer during the sales event in 2022.
It said it had another record-breaking Black Friday in 2023.
Takealot’s “ALOT for less” bulk shopping proposition was a major driver during the sales event, with sales jumping 65% over the year before.
Purchases focused on groceries and essential household items, while monthly essentials, beauty, sports, and large appliances also saw immense sales growth.
The top-selling product by units during Black Friday 2023 was a 24-pack of 300ml Coca-Cola cans, followed by 18-pack Baby Soft 2-ply toilet rolls and Klipdrift Premium Brandy.
There were just two tech items featured in Takealot’s top 10 by units: a Xiaomi 4K TV Media Player and a Hisense A6K TV, which placed 4th and 9th, respectively.
The sales volumes of these devices were impressive, considering that they were competing with much more affordable products.
For reference, the Xiaomi media box, at R899, sold more units than the Finish Dishwashing Tablets 100-pack, which was available for R249.
The top 10 products sold on Takealot by units for Black Friday last year were as follows:
- Coca-Cola 24-pack x 300ml cans
- Baby Soft 18-pack 2-ply toilet rolls
- Klipdrift Premium Brandy
- Xiaomi 4K Ultra HD TV Media Player
- Finish Dishwashing Tablets 100-pack
- Castle Lite 24-pack bottles
- Nivea Mens Deodorant Roll On
- Mondi Rotatrim Box of paper
- 58-inch Hisense A6K 4K TV
- Maybelline Baby Skin Primer
Regarding the products that attracted the highest spending by value, tech items featured far higher up the list.
TVs, laptops, smartphones, speakers, and headphones featured prominently in the top 10 items by gross merchandise value (GMV).
During the event in 2022, the most popular purchases included:
- Top item by units sold — Ballantine’s Finest Scotch Whiskey
- Top item sold by gross merchandise value — Hisense 58″ Smart TV
- Most valuable item sold — Samsung 75″ Smart TV
“South Africans came out in their numbers to take advantage of Black Friday 2023 specials,” Takealot CEO Frederik Zietsman said at the time.
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