One of the biggest events on the annual shopping calendar – Black Friday – took place on 27 November this year.
Black Friday typically results in a massive frenzy of shoppers who try to buy their targeted deals before they run out of stock.
In order to avoid a huge influx of visitors that could potentially create hotspots for the spread of the COVID-19 virus, however, several physical stores decided to stretch their deals over a number of weeks preceding Black Friday weekend.
These include retailers like Game, Incredible Connection, and Makro, all of which ran in-store and online offers over several days in November.
The trend was not limited to physical stores, however, as online-only stores like Takealot and Loot started running weekly Black Friday deals earlier in November.
This change in approach could mean the historic issues of delays in orders that were all placed on the same day may not be so significant for Black Friday 2020.
Black Friday tests
MyBroadband decided to see how well South Africa’s stores coped with the shopping demand over the period.
Our staff members placed orders from a range of online stores over the Black November month and ordered a variety of items.
The table below details the online store, the item which was purchased, when it was ordered, and when it was delivered.
| Online store | Item | Order Date | Delivery Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kloppers | LG NanoCell 4K TV | 11 November 2020 | 12 November 2020 |
| Expert Stores | Samsung QLED 4K TV | 11 November 2020 | 13 November 2020 |
| Takealot | PS5 DualSense controller | 25 November 2020 | 26 November 2020 |
| Takealot | Electric toothbrush | 25 November 2020 | 27 November 2020 |
| GeeWiz | Xiaomi Mi TV stick | 27 November 2020 | 29 November 2020 |
| Takealot | PS5 controller charging dock | 27 November 2020 | 30 November 2020 |
| Takealot | Perfume | 27 November 2020 | 30 November 2020 |
| Technomobi | Mobile Wi-Fi router | 27 November 2020 | 30 November 2020 |
| Takealot | Books | 27 November 2020 | 30 November 2020 |
| Takealot | Kindle Paperwhite | 27 November 2020 | 30 November 2020 |
| Incredible Connection | JBL Endurance Sprint earphones | 27 November 2020 | Wrong item delivered |
| Takealot | Shirt, golf balls, wine | 27 November 2020 | 1 December 2020 |
| Digicape | Skullcandy Bluetooth headphones | 27 November 2020 | 2 December 2020 |
| EyewearSA | Sunglasses | 27 November 2020 | 2 December 2020 |
| EyewearSA | Sunglasses | 27 November 2020 | Not delivered yet: 2 – 3 business days |
| Takealot | Rug, LED strip, batting gloves | 27 November 2020 | Estimated 15 December 2020 |
| Takealot | Book, puzzles, whisky | 27 November 2020 | Estimated 22 December 2020 |
What happened
MyBroadband staff ordered several items on Black Friday promotions preceding the main day itself.
All of these orders were delivered within 1-2 business days, including TVs from Kloppers and Expert Stores, respectively.
The first order placed on Black Friday itself was delivered by Courier Guy two days later – on Sunday 29 November.
Given its prominence as an online store in South Africa, it was no surprise that a large number of orders in our office were placed on Takealot.
The majority of the orders for products that were in stock were delivered within 1 – 2 business days from ordering.
It is important to note that two outstanding Takealot orders were still within their ETAs at the time of publication, as stock for these orders still had to be sourced from suppliers when they were placed.
The only order that did not arrive on time was a pair of sunglasses from EyewearSA.
Incorrect item delivered
Out of all the orders, one delivery – from Incredible Connection – contained the incorrect item.
Instead of the JBL Bluetooth headphones that one of MyBroadband’s staff members ordered, this package contained an Amazon Fire tablet.
A correction of the order was still pending by the time of publication.