The last discounts after White Friday and Cyber Monday are coming to an end and businesses are taking stock.
According to data from affiliate network Admitad, MENA customers spent 12% more during the sale week this year compared to 2023 and 37% more compared to the ordinary period this year. The excitement of previous years, when sales peaks grew manifold, is a thing of the past. While e-commerce is booming in the country - its symbol, White Friday, is gradually losing its hold on the minds of shoppers.
Admitad studied over 10 million orders placed during sale weeks and the regular periods without special discounts, including over 400,000 orders in the MENA region.
Why is White Friday going by the wayside?
Although the sale week showed an increase in the number of sales compared to last year - its effect dissolved among other important events and sale periods. Nowadays, almost every brand has switched to an aggressive discounting policy. Stores and marketplaces often have internal sales, on top of layering discounts for holidays and events, and customers regularly receive coupons and promo codes with special offers.
Discount fatigue is increasingly affecting customer behavior - they prefer to save items to favorites and wish lists to wait for the best price on specific items. Sale periods no longer generate the same excitement. Especially against the backdrop of growing distrust of discounts themselves. Many marketplace sellers and individual stores are constantly artificially inflating prices in order to get into the biggest discount picks. These unscrupulous practices have undermined shoppers' faith in the benefits of White Friday deals.
The impact of the global recession and inflation is also taking its toll - shoppers are less likely to make impulse purchases and more likely to form a basket in advance. The average check in MENA during White Friday week this year rose more than 13% - to $38.
What products were MENA shoppers buying up?
The impact of marketplaces during White Friday 2024 was even greater. According to Admitad’s estimates, they accounted for about 67% of purchases on average this year, and their share jumped to 74% during the sale. This result was also influenced by technical innovations, such as the use of chatbots and AI assistants to create customized product selections. Large platforms are the first to implement such methods, which gives them an advantage during periods of high demand.
Top product categories by share of total sales in MENA during White Week:
- Electronics - 21%
- Fashion - 19%
- Home & Garden - 17%
- Automobiles, Parts & Accessories - 7,7%
- Toys & Hobbies - 7,3%
- Beauty & Health - 6%
- Children's goods - 5,6%
- Sports & Entertainment - 4,8%
- Tools - 4%
- Others - 7,6%
Compared to last year's sale, demand for home goods, children's goods and car products significantly increased.
In the online services segment, sales of online educational courses jumped by more than 50% and orders in the online gaming category increased by 27% compared to the ordinary period this year.
Which customer engagement channels are the most effective
MENA shoppers are increasingly savvy about the intricacies of online shopping and are more active in using tools to get the best price. As predicted, the availability of cashback played a big role for shoppers - over 25% of White Week purchases were made using it. 13% of purchases were made using coupons and promo codes.
Another major trend is a continuous increase in influencer sales in the region. According to the influencer marketing platform Takefluence their share in total number of attracted sales went up from 12,5% last year to more than 16% in 2024. For a long time, the only drawbacks of collaborating with influencers were high prices and unpredictable results. But nowadays more and more Influencers are becoming affiliate partners, which increases the transparency and efficiency of integrations. In 2024, the number of content creators working under the affiliate model has grown by 11%.
More than 25% of White Friday sales came from affiliate stores (websites with catalogs and thematic feeds of goods of different brands). Another 19% of clients were influenced by reviews in online media and articles on content platforms. In terms of effectiveness, they were followed by contextual ads (11%) and mobile apps (5%).
The hot period also had a positive impact on the revenues of affiliate publishers, who actively attracted orders for remunerations. Their profits grew by 49% during the sale week. The transparency and predictability of attracting customers through the CPA model is motivating more and more MENA brands to include collaboration with affiliate networks in their marketing strategy. This year, the number of advertisers for whom Admitad publishers attracted orders during White Friday increased by 10%.
