Marketing Guru Joe Issa who sees business opportunities as far away as the United States, Europe and Asia is suggesting that Jamaican companies could target mega-spending holidays abroad such as Black Friday as potential opportunities to market their products.
Issa, who is said to have studied in the US and continues to host his classmates for periodic reunions, operates one of Jamaica’s most prominent online companies, clicketmarket.com, a subsidiary of his Cool Group of over 50 companies that are being leveraged internationally
“Black Friday is the most significant spending day of the Thanksgiving weekend. It starts on Thursday and ends on Cyber Monday. That is mega sales we can tap into, both in the US where the tradition began and now the UK where it has since spread.
“Think of the enormous sums our Diaspora people will be spending for Thanksgiving weekend this year, especially on Black Friday; that is more Jamaicans than we have living here.
“If we start advertising our products online early enough it will allow our people out there the opportunity to order Jamaican products for their families and friends, including their non-Jamaican friends. If I know our people well, it will provide an opportunity for them to show off all that’s Jamaican.
“Moreover, we will not only be targeting our Diaspora but also US and British consumers who would now be well acquainted with Jamaica; thanks to our music, sport, culture and heritage that have made us popular the world over,” said Issa. who is known to have popularised Reggae music on campus and at nightclubs in Worcester, Massachusettes where he attended university.
Issa added: “However, we have to be prepared to make the necessary investment and form alliances with our US and UK counterparts to ensure that the Jamaican products are readily available for delivery to customs on time based on the standards there, as well as to give the appropriate discounts to attract sales.”
According to The Independent last year Britons spent a record £5.8 billion over the four days between Black Friday and Cyber Monday, representing a 15 percent increase on 2015, quoting VoucherCodes.co.uk and the Centre for Retail Research (CRR).
Of the £5.8 billion, online retailers are said to have taken some £2.8 billion – a 20 percent increase from the £2.3 billion posted in 2015. On Black Friday itself, an estimated £1.27 billion was spent by consumers in the 24 hour period – up 16 percent on 2015.
Black Friday this year falls on November 24, the day after Thanksgiving and is followed by Cyber Monday (November 27), which used to be a separate event in its right until last year when it merely became an extension to the Black Friday weekend, it is said.
The term Black Friday originated from Philadelphia, USA, in the early 1950s. It used to describe a pre-Christmas day of wholesale carnage. Online retail giant Amazon introduced the concept to the UK in 2010 and Asda, which is owned by America’s most prominent retailer Walmart, is said to have followed suit in 2013.
“Even with these high sales Black Friday is still entirely trumped by China’s Singles Day, the world’s biggest online shopping day of the year which finished on November 11, 2016, with Chinese shoppers spending $17.8bn (£14.2bn) in 24 hours.
Jamie Merrick of Salesforce Commerce Cloud is quoted as saying that UK retailers did not discount as heavily as those in other countries. Noting that consumers in the UK saw prices cut by an average of just 9%, compared to Germany (23%), France (26%), the United States (29%) and Canada (36%).
In 2016, Ikea, Asda, Next and Homebase are said to have been among those who did not participate in Black Friday. M&S and Selfridges, which reportedly took some part, held weekend-long Christmas-themed sales instead.
“Following feedback from customers that they wanted low prices throughout the festive season and not just for one day, Asda decided to step away from Black Friday,” said an Asda spokesman.
Asda, which was hailed in 2013 when it came onboard to spread the US phenomenon of Black Friday in the UK, hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons when scenes of shoppers wrestling over discounted televisions made front page news.
In 2016, John Lewis is said to have trumped brands such as Apple and Amazon to take the top spot as the nation’s most popular brand for Black Friday. The department store also took the top spot for tech-specific purchases, followed again by Apple, Amazon and Game. However, Debenhams appeared to have won the fashion war, the Independent wrote, quoting data from voucher website, Vouchercloud.
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