‘Black Friday’ option amid rising dollar
The yuletide season is fast approaching, less than 26 days to Christmas.
Chidinma Okoronkwo, who travels a lot to buy goods, is set to travel this weekend to Turkey to purchase Turkey-made wears for retailing during the festive season. She is in discussion with her regular suppliers abroad to make purchases worth N4 million. Her suppliers have agreed to the deals, but something she has not anticipated happened.
Last week, Friday, November 21, the official price of the dollar to naira was N165. As of Tuesday, November 24, the naira came under pressure with the value of the dollar to the naira rising to N173. At the parallel market (Bureau d Change), it has risen to N182 to the dollar. The news was not any better; as of Tuesday this week the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) devalued the naira further, as it moved the midpoint of the official window of the foreign exchange market from N155 to N168 to one dollar. At the parallel market, the naira was selling for N182.50.
This unpalatable news has placed her in a major ‘fix.’
‘How do I make up for the sharp rise in the naira,’ Chidinma asked. This remains a major puzzle as she wanted to make a ‘kill’ from aggressive marketing of the goods, when she returns to Nigeria.
The price of crude oil in the global market is plummeting, thereby sending world markets into panic. From about $115 back in June, it has plummeted to $78 for a barrel of oil. With Nigerians believing that the development has dire implication for a country that depends on this monolithic product, thereby placing the country’s naira under pressure. Perhaps, this means lower dollar revenue and a possible weaker naira.
BusinessDay investigations show that some shoppers in the country are sceptical of Christmas spending following rising price in the dollar which has placed the country’s Naira under watch.
In an interview with Omobonike Akanji, a business woman who deals on Turkey dresses, she says “Turkey has taken over the market now. They have materials and designs too and I am due to travel but because of this dollar fall, this will really affect our sales this Christmas. If I manage to travel, which means the rate at which I get my stuff is what I am selling.”
For Chinwe Madu, another business woman, “Due to the falling of dollar now, I cannot travel. Rather, I will sell off what I have currently and wait till when the price of the dollar to the Naira comes down before I travel. The rise in the Dollar will surely affect sales this Christmas except the otherwise happens.”
Hence, amid growing uncertainty over how shopping experience this Christmas season may become, the Black Friday option, which is one of the most celebrated shopping day globally on last Fridays on November, is an option Nigerians are thinking of tapping into to make purchases.
Black Friday is the Friday following Thanksgiving Day in the United States (the fourth Thursday of November), often regarded as the beginning of the Christmas shopping season. On that day, lot of great deals and unbelievable discounts on items ranging from gadgets, fashion, home appliances, and lots more from retail stores occur across the globe.
For many, it has become a day when people save to do all their shopping for the year. According to media reports, Black Friday sales in 2013 recorded 307 million shoppers worldwide topping $57.4 billion in sales.
With the rapid growth of eCommerce, online sales grossed $1.4 billion- an indication of rapid awareness and improvement in the lifestyle of customers. Statistics for online retailers for Black Friday in the US and Asia have come in their billions with most retailers seeing figures that have most times far exceeded what they had previously recorded in whole months.
Tapping into this new development, United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc has put in place plans to ensure all its card holders are able to take advantage of the huge discounts that will be on offer from the comfort of their homes in Nigeria.
To ensure that its clients does not miss out on the huge deals that are up for grabs from Black Friday to Cyber Monday (Monday after Thanksgiving Day), UBA is in partnership with Shoptomydoor, a service of American AirSea Cargo that allows Africans, individuals and business owners shop from thousands of stores in UK, U.S.A and China have the items delivered to their door steps in Nigeria or anywhere in Africa.
Having experienced Black Friday last year, Jumia.com, one of the leading online marketplace, revealed that Nigerians should be getting ready to break the bank shopping for gifts for family, friends and colleagues.
According to Jumia.com, to Nigerians who for many years have only read about ‘the biggest shopping event’, Black Friday may seem like madness, an event that usually saw the shopping appetite of people come to the fore, ushering in Christmas shopping and a day that people look forward to with so much expectation.
Anne Agbaje