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Faizel Patel – 27/10/2020
With Black Friday just little more than a month away, this year’s shopping spree will be vastly different from previous years following the global outbreak of COVID-19.
The Coronavirus regulations on social distancing and the number of people allowed to gather at any one place will be tough for consumers who are used to queuing as early as 2am at stores ready to grab specials offered by retailers.
Despite 2020 being a very tough year for almost everyone, there’s nothing to be gained from not recognising Black Friday and the festive season at large.
This is according to Matthew Leighton, spokesperson for leading local e-tailer, OneDayOnly who says that now more than ever, the economy requires stimulation and regrowth – and Black Friday is the biggest opportunity the eCommerce industry has to contribute towards that economic stimulation.
With Coronavirus regulations in place, What other options are available to retail stores to still make the sales without the masses fighting over the last item on sale?
Leighton says this years Black Friday mania will be unprecedented.
“I don’t see how we can see the scenes that we seen in previous years because kind of social distancing and stores will reach capacity a lot quicker now that they did, but it seem like an unfortunate inevitability. The flip side in online shopping. So I think we do expect a big influx of online shopping this year during black Friday and we kind of already accommodating it from our side.”
Leighton says online shopping, given the COVID-19 pandemic, is the safer option if consumers want to take advantage of Black Friday specials.
“That is kind of the upshot of online shopping that it’s very geared towards a quite a safe contactless delivery. We hand over goods to couriers very easily in a very safe environment and couriers can deliver to customers very safely and easily as well. You can simply leave a box, get back in the car and than as a customer you can pick it up. You can’t replicate that in reality.”
Leighton says big retailers like Checkers, Game, Pick n Pay and Makro are also expected to join the online shopping frenzy enticing customers with their black Friday specials, which is also more convenient.
Listen to the interview with Matthew Leighton
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