Brick-and-mortar stores gearing up for Black Friday
Many starting sales earlier after Singles' Day success
Brick-and-mortar shops are gearing up for Black Friday tomorrow, with some starting sales earlier than last year.
This comes after Singles' Day, which happened on Nov 11.
This Black Friday however, retailers kicked off their sales as early as Monday.
Courts Singapore started its Black Friday discounts on Monday and will run for a week, encompassing both Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales.
Customers at Courts started voting for the items they wanted to see on discount right after Singles' Day, and top products include laptops and blenders.
Mr Ben Tan, chief executive officer of Courts Singapore, said: "Since 2013, Courts has been running Black Friday sales and seeing a year-on-year growth in sales both in stores and online over the years.
"Likewise, we just came off the back of a successful Singles' Day, when we more than doubled our online sales from last year."
Gain City also started its sales on Monday and will run till Nov 26 for Cyber Monday, compared to last year when sales started on Black Friday itself.
Department store Robinsons will be opening its doors early, with the sale kicking off at midnight tonight. The sales at Robinsons used to start at 7am in the morning of Black Friday.
It will also be the first time that Robinsons will be open 24 hours for the sales, which can see up to 80 per cent discounts and will end on Friday midnight.
Black Friday is usually regarded as the day after Thanksgiving in the US, when the official shopping season starts.
Malls such as VivoCity and Ion Orchard will also have Black Friday deals. This comes on the back of Singles' Day, where brick-and-mortar shops have noticed a spillover effect on their sales even though it started off as largely an online phenomenon.
Courts and Gain City told The New Paper they witnessed a rise in footfall in their physical stores on Nov 11.
A Gain City spokesman told The New Paper there was a 5 per cent to 10 per cent increase in sales on Singles' Day. Singles' Day was started by China's largest company Alibaba Group a decade ago and has since grown internationally.
Associate Professor of Finance Qian Wenlan from the National University of Singapore noted that while online sales events are rapidly growing, it does not completely substitute traditional shops as consumers value the ability to see and try out a product before buying it.
She expects to see more brick-and-mortar shops jumping onto online events.
She said: "This will become more of a big thing, since e-commerce is catching on. To stand out, traditional shops must think of what they can offer that the online platforms cannot."
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