Souq.com dresses Black Friday in white for the MENA
“Our Friday is White,” says the ad campaign for the MENA region’s first Black Friday sales event.
Souq.com, one of the region’s biggest online retail stores, brings Black Friday, the world’s biggest sales day, to netizens in the Arab region. Souq.com will offer a preview of the offers on its mobile app on Friday, November 26th and will stretch the sales period from November 27th until midnight on November 28th.
“In the Arab World, Friday is the day of prayer, the day of gathering, the day off, the family day, the day of joy, so surely… our Friday is WHITE! Jom3tna beda! [Arabic transliteration],” the team wrote in the #WhiteFriday announcement post.
In the US, Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, is the opening day for the holiday shopping season. It is called ‘black’ as it indicates the point at which retailers begin to turn a profit, or “into the black.” Last year, Amazon UK witnessed a 160% increase in sales during its Black Friday promotional period; the US National Retail Federation estimated that consumers spent over $52 billion during the Black Friday shopping period in the US last year.
In the region, it also falls one month before the Dubai Shopping Festival, the city's biggest annual retail event.
During the sale period, “we are expecting over 10 million visitors a day to our website driven by the 250,000 products discounted,” says Ronaldo Mouchawar, cofounder and chief executive of Souq.com.
“Our market share is developing,” Mouchawar told reporters last Sunday, noting that 52% of online shoppers in the UAE were already using the company's website. “Keeping that share, while growing that pie, is really our goal,” he adds. The firm attracts more than 30 million visits and 10 million unique visitors to its site every month.
Regional internet usage grows by about 40% per year; ecommerce spending in the Middle East and North Africa has been estimated at $12 billion in 2014 and is projected to reach $15 billion next year.
When and how to shop
Souq.com has partnered with some of the biggest global and regional companies who will be launching special offers on this occasion such as: Apple, Samsung, Sony, LG, Huawei, Microsoft, Nokia Lumia, Mini from AGMC, Xbox, PlayStation, Lenovo, Motorola, Infinix, InnJoo, Archos, Du, Etisalat, and Intel Ctroniq. There will be over 1000 exclusive deals on offer.
Souq.com also scored an exclusive partnership with MasterCard, offering an additional 15% discount on all deals made through a MasterCard credit card. And consumers who download the Souq.com mobile app will get a 24-hour exclusive access to the top deals, on the 26th of November.
“We have partnered with brands who share the same objective, growing their online business, ranging from telecommunications companies, manufacturers launching exclusive models, to fast-moving consumer goods companies (FMCGs) trying on line for the first time,” says Mouchawar, to the Arabian Gazette.
Despite the volume of orders expected, the company will still offer its standard Cash On Delivery (COD) services over the weekend.
