‘Xepa’ from Black Friday cheers up, but date has 1st drop in sales in history

by

Imported from the United States since 2010, with the proposal to warm up trade a month before Christmas, Black Friday observed in Brazil, in 2022, the first drop in sales in its history. The decline occurred in online sales, the means by which at least 90% of consumers intended to make their purchases this year, according to a survey by the Brazilian complaints website Reclame Aqui.

Two large electronic retail surveys –Ebit|Nielsen and ClearSale/Neotrust– have shown, year after year, superlative numbers in Black Friday sales (always in nominal values, without discounting inflation). To give you an idea, sales started at R$3 million in 2010 and increased to R$100 million in 2011, according to ClearSale. In 2015, they reached R$ 1.57 billion.

Retail specialist Alberto Serrentino, a partner at Varese Retail, recalls that the original American Black Friday, held after Thanksgiving, the main date on which Americans exchange gifts, was born to liquidate stocks on that date. “It would be our 26th of December,” he told Sheet🇧🇷

Cyber ​​Monday, on the other hand, was born so that websites could sell their products, on the momentum of the date. “Brazilians took the idea of ​​Cyber ​​Monday and started selling here on e-commerce. But the date only exploded when major retailers –Carrefour, Pão de Açúcar, Magazine Luiza, Casas Bahia– joined.”

In 2019, according to Ebit|Nielsen, sales reached BRL 3.2 billion, considering Thursday and Friday.

But it was in the first year of the pandemic, in 2020, that the numbers took off: sales of BRL 6 billion in the week of “Black Friday heats up”, from November 19 to 27. Considering the “shepa” of the date, on Saturday and Sunday, over R$ 1.5 billion, informed Ebit|Nielsen. On Friday alone, it recorded sales of around R$ 3.1 billion.

In 2021, says Clearsale/Neotrust, sales on Friday reached BRL 4.3 billion and, this year, they fell 28%, to BRL 3.1 billion, while the number of orders fell 24%, to 4 ,5 million. It is the first drop in billing since the date began to be promoted in Brazil.

Retailers were worried about a Black Friday parallel to a World Cup: the sporting event started on November 20th. Brazil played last Thursday (25), the eve of Black Friday, when sales are already starting to be expressive.

“But what we saw was the consumer with attention turned to the selection game”, he told Sheet the president of Reclame Aqui. “The game in Brazil caused access to the site to drop 80% during the match. In the end, the flow returned 20% lower”, he said.

On Thursday, fashion and cosmetics were in high demand, Friday featured higher value-added items, such as smartphones and TVs, but at the end of the day grocery was the highlight again (as it was on Black Friday 2021), says Neves.

One hope was that, this Saturday and Sunday, the numbers would be more encouraging. According to a survey by Reclame Aqui with 13.7 thousand users, around 20% intended to make their purchases after 6 pm on Friday, catching the “xepa” of Black Friday.

This Saturday (26), however, according to data from Clearsale/Neotrust, sales reached R$ 1.2 billion, with 2.2 million orders – drops of 4.4% and 4.3%, respectively, in relation to to last year.

According to ClearSale/Neotrust, considering the month of November until Friday, the 25th, the decrease was smaller in relation to the Black Friday date. “Total e-commerce revenues, from November 1st to the 26th, at 11:59 pm, closed at R$ 17.7 billion, something about 8% less than 2021. The number of orders reached close to 35.8 million, about 7% less”, informed the company, in a note, suggesting that there was a dilution of sales throughout the month.

Of course, it wasn’t just the World Cup that disrupted online retail plans – although it did help sell national team shirts, sneakers, TVs, smartphones and electric fryers.

The consumer has less available credit and retailers have not bet on attractive promotions. “Online sales slowed down this year because companies are much less aggressive in shipping, discount and installment policies. They are not looking for sales at any price”, says Serrentino.

Fraud attempts exceed BRL 50 million

According to ClearSale, between Thursday and Saturday, the company avoided BRL 51.7 million in fraud attempts, which represents around 40,000 fraudulent orders. The company specializes in data intelligence aimed at risk prevention.

The total surpassed the company’s initial forecast of fraud by up to R$ 50 million. “It’s an important warning to shopkeepers, as the new means of payment make room for new types of fraud. The growth of Pix and other payment methods may have boosted this number”, says ClearSale’s leader in market strategy, Marcelo Queiroz, in note.

Regarding the means of payment during Black Friday, the most used in e-commerce were: credit card (54.2%), followed by e-wallet, cashback and debit (16.3%). Pix, on the other hand, added up to 15.7%, while the billet accounted for 13.8%.

You May Also Like

Recommended for you