Six days before Black Friday, they woke up early for discounts at Mall del Sol

It was 06:30 this Sunday, November 19, and about 80 people were waiting at the main entrance of the Mall del Sol, in the north of Guayaquil. Half an hour later, when they had already passed a hundred in that one entrance, not counting the other entrances to the shopping center, they managed to enter and look for the best offers and discounts in the stores in the eleventh edition of the campaign “Mall del Sol wakes up early. help”, which the shopping center conducts in cooperation with its concessionaires to offer customers discounts and other benefits a few days before Black Friday, which this year will be next Friday, November 24.

The special feature of this initiative is moving the working hours to 07:00. The most aggressive discounts in stores are expected to last until 1 p.m., and from then on there will be differentiated sales. Claudia Mata was among the first to arrive and entered the shopping center in search of two products she had previously researched: a 55-inch television and a printer. “I’ve already researched the normal price of the two things I’m looking for, if I see that there are really savings, I’ll take them right away,” said the client, who arrived accompanied by her teenage son.

Black Friday: get up early for discounts, the legendary Mall del Sol campaign will be this Sunday, November 19, 2023.

However, although household appliances were one of the product categories most searched for by customers on this day, clothing and footwear remained the preferred product. The most visited in the first hours of the day was the Adidas store where the attention was captured by the footwear, displayed in small mounds with promotional prices.

Fernando Rivas was the second person to shop at the store, located on the top floor of Mall del Sol, buying a pair of shoes for $60. “The normal price was 100 dollars, I got them for 60 dollars,” said the customer when leaving the premises. When asked about the savings in the purchase, he revealed that even before the purchase, he knew how much the shoes cost in the US. “In the USA I buy these shoes for 50 dollars, here with discounts I get them for 60 dollars, the difference is 10 dollars, it seems good to me considering that I don’t have to pay for the trip”, explained Rivas.

Lizbeth Henríquez, manager of the Adidas store in Mall del Sol, indicated that for this day they offered 25% off the entire store and selected merchandise with discounts between 40% and 60% off. “There are $30 to $80 shoes on sale, which are high-end shoes,” he said.

The store’s sales expectation is a growth of at least 10% compared to last year’s campaign. “The response of people was better this year, always at this time in the past years, as a result of the pandemic, the traffic was a little higher after 08:00, but now we see that right now (07:10) there is more movement,” said Henriquez. He added that for Black Friday on Friday the 24th, there will also be significant discounts in the brand’s ten stores in Quito and Guayaquil.

H&M opened in Mall del Sol and added four stores in Ecuador in less than a year after its arrival

Another business in the same product category is Nike, which has also attracted a large number of customers. Segundo Santillán, the deputy store manager, indicated that they offered a 30% discount on the entire store and selected merchandise up to -50% off. “This year we expect about 25% of sales, what people are looking for the most are football stuff and clothes sport for men,” revealed Santillán, who expected to receive close to 21,000 clients that day.

There were stores that did not offer discounts for the Mall del Sol promotion, but plan to offer their own discounts in the future, such as the Maxitec to Discover tech store. Luis Álvarez, in charge of operations, assured that from November 21 to 27, they will offer discounts of 10% to 55%. “We hope to have at least a 20% increase in sales,” Álvarez said.

He found that the products that generate the most expectations among customers are Alexa, the virtual assistant developed by Amazon, which is used for the first time in the Amazon Echo smart speaker. It is available in English, German, Spanish, Japanese, French and Italian; and telescopes.

They predict up to 25% higher sales

For his part, Bruno Zavala, general manager of the Mall de Sol, highlighted the public reaction, ensuring that it exceeded what was perceived in previous years that were affected by the pandemic. “This is the eleventh edition of this event that managed to overcome many obstacles, let’s remember that in recent years we had a certain impact due to capacity control after the pandemic and we are very happy to receive the entire public with the doors completely open,” said the director.

He emphasized that there are also complementary activities that started at the beginning of November and stated that the shopping center campaign is a preamble to Black Friday next week. He also pointed out that visitors this year can take advantage of the latest renovations and expansions of the Mall del Sol, the third floor, parking (free on this day of the campaign) and new stores that have arrived in the shopping center.

Everything new in Mall del Sol: the opening of the third level completed the expansion of the shopping center, allowing the entry of new brands

Last June, the commercial director of Mall del Sol, Sofía Naranjo, indicated that 14,000 square meters had been intervened with an investment of 14 million dollars in the mall alone, but that it included 68 additional brand investments with new, renovated and relocated. Total this Shopping Mall There are 278 stores. In the expansion of the second level, large formats such as Marathon and EtaFashion are already operating, which have been relocated and now have much more space, and there are also new brands such as the first GAP store in Ecuador, American Eagle, Skechers, Steren, H&M, among others .

As for commercial expectations from the campaign, Zavala pointed out that they depend on the sales activities and strategies of each business, but he predicts that there will be an additional turnover of 10%, 20% and up to 25% compared to previous years. . “These sales results could not be achieved if we do not bring and generate all these innovative activities during the Christmas season and this day is no exception,” said the general manager of Mall del Sol, adding that the increase in visitors for this Christmas season is about 20% compared to the rest of the year.