In line with the biggest shopping festival in the West, which takes place on November 29 this year, several of the country’s leading brands and retailers, such as Adidas, Flipkart, Nykaa, and Amazon, have started their Black Friday offers.
Black Friday, a concept imported from the US, marks the start of the Christmas shopping season. In India, it has been gaining popularity, especially as it follows Diwali, explains Nilesh Gupta, director of Vijay Sales, an electronics retailer. This year, Black Friday will span November 29–30 and December 1, concluding with Cyber Monday, a retail event focused on electronics and driven by e-commerce platforms, on December 2.
“There is typically a lull after Diwali because the festive season is a long one in India. Black Friday tends to fill up this post-Diwali phase, enticing consumers with lucrative deals, offers, discounts,” Gupta says. Some retailers start their Black Friday sales early, offering discounts from anywhere between 25-30% at the lower end to 50-70% at the upper end of the band. Retailers also step up consumer promotions and campaigns to amplify their presence during the occasion. Categories that are big during the occasion include beauty, lifestyle and fashion mobile phones and electronic items to home and personal care products.
Mumbai-based retail expert and consultant Jaydeep Shetty says that Black Friday has gained ground in India thanks to the digital and e-commerce boom in the country as well as the growing presence of global brands here. “It is also targeted at a younger audience to drive sales,” he says.
Brands like H&M, Zara, Uniqlo, Samsung, Sony, Adidas, and Puma have taken centre stage this year with campaigns promoting their Black Friday sales. Indian retailers, including Croma and Nykaa, have also actively participated. Nykaa, for instance, has rebranded Black Friday as “Pink Friday”, adding a feminine twist to appeal directly to its beauty and fashion-conscious consumers.
The beauty retailer is offering deals on over 1,900 brands across skincare, makeup, hair care and fragrances, it said. Free gifts on orders, daily deals on bestsellers, and new and exclusive beauty brands are part of the sale, it said.
Samsung, on the other hand, is offering a discount of up to Rs 12,000 on Galaxy phones and accessories including the Galaxy Watch. It is also offering instant cashback on upgrades of phones and accessories and has deals on a host of other categories.
Gupta says he prefers to stay true to the occasion and will go live on Friday with his sale, offering as much as a 50-60% discount on mobile phones and home appliance products.
“The beauty of Black Friday is in the name,” he says. “In the West, Black Friday is synonymous with a shopping extravaganza that begins in the wee hours of the morning, extending into the night. In India, I see Black Friday becoming what Independence Day and Republic Day is in a few years from now,” he adds.