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Black Friday sales in India received a good response as brands dropped their prices making customers queue up outside stores where discounts were steeper.
Discounts were offered both online and offline.
Most of the international brands in India offered discounts under the Black Friday Sale banner.
The Black Friday Sale started in the US on the Friday after Thanksgiving Thursday.
The day typically marks the beginning of the Christmas shopping season ahead of the festival.
Brands in the US typically offer deep discounts on Black Friday, but this has now picked up momentum with brands globally.
“The Black Friday Sale response has been good both online and offline.
"Customers are now coming back to shop and sales are now close to pre-covid levels,” Rajesh Jain, managing director and chief executive officer at Lacoste India told Business Standard.
Online fashion retailer, Myntra is running its Black Friday Sales event between November 26-30 with 3,000 partner brands.
"Brands are putting their best foot forward to cater to the needs of the fashion-conscious shoppers.
"We are witnessing strong demand for categories including personal care, ethnic wear, western wear, accessories, premium merchandise and home furnishing. Winter wear is witnessing compounded demand from the event, in addition to seasonality," said Sharon Pais, chief business officer at Myntra.
"The Black Friday sale is a global event. We have some amazing offers from our brands to our customers and the response has been impressive so far.
"The sale continues for the weekend and we are hoping for even better results," said Tushar Ved, president at Major Brands, a franchisee partner for international brands in India.
It is a franchisee partner for brands like Aldo, Charles & Keith and Beverly Hills Polo Club among others in the country.
Electronics and appliances retailer Vijay Sales witnessed a lukewarm start to the Black Friday sales.
“The (Black Friday) sale did not start on a good note due to Friday being a working day, but we expect better footfall over the weekend,” said Nilesh Gupta, managing director at Vijay Sales.
Gupta added that while the Black Friday Sale began in the country only two to three years ago, it has the potential to become big enough like the Independence Day sales.
Vijay Sales has discounts running upto 50 per cent.
"The whole idea (of Black Friday Sale) started with varying discounts on fresh merchandise on Friday and has now been extended to an entire weekend at our premium malls.
"The response from both consumers and brand alike are very encouraging," Pushpa Bector, executive director at DLF Retail said.
Adding, "At DLF Avenue, over 40 brands are offering discounts on a curated list of products that are available at Rs 2,999 only.
"We are expecting 30-40% more footfall all through this weekend.”
Infiniti Mall saw 50 per cent more sales on Black Friday as compared to its normal sales, with some brands getting an even stronger response.
"We had a total of 30-35 brands at our malls participate in the Black Friday Sales,” Mukesh Kumar, chief executive officer at Infiniti Mall, said.
A shopper, Sudha Pai who visited the Phoenix Mill in Lower Parel, said, "Many outlets had discount fliers outside the shops but zero discounts on products inside.
"In H&M, the discount was 20 per cent. It is unlike the Black Friday sales we have seen in San Francisco and New York.”
In terms of seller preparedness for the Black Friday and Cyber Monday (BFCM), e-commerce firm Amazon said over 70,000 Indian exporters are launching over 52,000 new products on Amazon’s global websites for the 2021 BFCM sales.
Amazon customers globally will be able to have access to a range of products across categories including home and kitchen, science, technology, engineering, and mathematics toys, apparel and health and personal care from exporters across India.
The other categories include office products, jewellery, beauty and furniture.
The Black Friday and Cyber Monday sale started on Thursday, November 25 and ends on Monday, November 29.
“The BFCM sale marks the beginning of the global holiday season," said Abhijit Kamra, Director Global Trade Amazon India.
"Coming right after the festive season in India, it has traditionally been a key growth period for our selling partners and with more and more people relying on ecommerce for products globally, we believe that the 2021 BFCM sale period will help accelerate the exports business for our sellers.”
Kamra said e-commerce exports helps lower the entry barrier for Indian MSMEs to build and scale their exports business.
"Through Amazon Global Selling, we will continue to make exports easy and accessible for MSMEs across India and contribute to the Government’s vision of boosting exports," said Kamra.
Last year, Indian exporters on Amazon Global Selling registered 50 per cent growth in sales during the annual Black Friday and Cyber Monday sale on Amazon globally.
Three forty-three Indian exporters clocked over Rs 10 lakh in sales during BFCM, with 154 sellers crossing Rs 25 lakhs in sales.
Last year Indian exporters witnessed nearly 3x surge in demand across North America, European Union, and Middle East North Africa.Product categories like furniture and toys nearly doubled Year on Year.
Photograph: Arnd Wiegmann/Reuters
