Black Friday is already here in Ecuador, discounts have advanced due to concerns about power outages

This year, Black Friday, one of the times of the year when stores offer significant discounts, will be next November 24 – the last Friday of the month. However, promotions on that date are already appearing in the windows and showcases of most stores in different shopping centers offering discounts of up to 70% for the season that this 2023 has a special feature: power outages.

Clothing, footwear and technical stores are the ones that have made the most progress in offering promotions, as they try to use most of the days in November to increase sales. For example, at the Shoe Box location in Mall del Sur in Guayaquil, starting this week they are offering up to 50% off all merchandise in the store.

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The beginning of the Black Friday promotions was positive for store sales, reveals Édison Cárdenas, second in command of the establishment. He states that in these first three days of the promotion, there was a noticeable increase in sales. “The store’s normal sales are about $600 a day, but since Monday we started the Black Friday promotion, customer traffic has increased and so have sales, now it sells for $700 to $900 a day.”

As for the mall, Leticia García, Mall del Sur marketing manager, indicates that the Black Friday campaign will be on November 24, but reveals that it will have special opening hours, although she also admits that in general retail There are promotions that cover that weekend and the whole month, so they equate to discounts.

“We will be opening at 08:00 on Friday 24 November to give our customers more options, convenience and time to shop. We will be running a “Shop for Free” promotion, in which the first 100 customers to purchase and trade in their accounts will be entered into a drawing to win back the value of their purchases that day, up to $1,000. There will be three winners,” explains the mall’s marketing manager.

At Riocentro Sur, another mall in the area, Black Friday promotions have also taken over some stores.

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While in the north of the city, CityMall is also preparing discounts of up to 70% in all stores during the weekend of November 24-26, although several companies are already offering promotions for that date. Like Mall del Sur, shoppers who shop during the three-day sale are entered to win cash back, up to $1,000 (you’re a winner). In addition, members of certain credit and debit cards are entered for exclusive prizes: 10 consumer orders at the supermarket for $100 and two winners will be awarded 50,000 points on one of those credit cards, according to Patricia Herrera, the mall’s marketing manager. .

Brands that are present in the majority shopping centers from Guayaquil also announced the start of this discount season, and one of them is EtaFashion. During November, the brand offers discounts in all segments: home, fashion, beauty, technology, footwear and perfumery of 30%, 50% and up to 70%. Plus, special clothing items starting at $5.99. There are also special tech prices: 58″ Smart TV from $499.99, iPhone 11 – 128GB $699.99, Play Station 5 and headphones from $799.99 and so on.

Power outages affect business

However, in contrast to this commercial incentive, rationing and its changes in the weekly schedule are worrying and affecting some establishments. For example, in Camisas Él, in Mall del Sur, power outages affected their sales, which this week fell by about 50% when the schedule in this sector of southern Guayaquil is from 08:00:00 to 11:00 and from 17 :00 to 18:00, say Verónica Rodríguez and Esmeralda Layana, sellers in the bar. The store also started with Black Friday promotions with discounts of up to 50%.

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Rodríguez states that although the mall has its own power plant and activates it when the power goes out, the store prefers to create invoices manually and then send them electronically to the customer’s email, because the power generated by the plant does not supply all the electronic equipment on the premises.

Shoe Box’s Cárdenas also admits that while with the plant they can have power for basic operation of the facility, they have to avoid turning on the air conditioner and prefer to invoice manually because the internet is unstable during these outage periods.

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Initially, the Guayaquil Chamber of Commerce estimated that local sales in the commercial sector on Black Friday 2023 would increase by 4% to total $254 million, according to Juan Carlos Díaz-Granados, the union’s executive director.

However, faced with nationwide power outages, the Chamber had to update its forecasts downward. Díaz-Granados warns that if the blackouts continue through Black Friday, the commercial sector will have reduced operations, which will translate into less capacity to generate sales.

“Our new estimates show that, if that were the case, national sales in the retail sector on Black Friday would have been $232 million, 5% less than a year ago,” the union leader analyzed.