7 Black Friday Facts You Probably Didn’t Know

Clothing shop. [Photo: Courtesy]

With Black Friday being only a few weeks away, shoppers all over the world are getting ready to grab the best deals on products they have been wanting all year long. With the offers proliferating the closer we get to November, one can only stop and ask: “What exactly is Black Friday”? Keep reading to find out the 7 facts about the day that for years now holds the title of the biggest shopping event of the year!

Black Friday was not always related to sales!

The term was used for the first time on the 24th of September to describe how two speculators, Jay Gould and James Fisk, created a boom-and-bust in gold prices. A stock market crash followed, as prices fell 20 percent.

Black Friday wasn’t the busiest shopping day until 2001

Black Friday was officially named the busiest shopping day of the year in 2001. Up until this year, the title was held by the Saturday preceding Christmas Day.

The date of Black Friday was, indirectly, determined by holiday shoppers

Black Friday is the Friday following the American tradition on Thanksgiving. Up until the early 20th century, the president would announce a day of thanksgiving on the last Thursday of November.But in 1939, the last Thursday happened to be the last day in November. In order for shoppers to have enough time to shop President Roosevelt moved the holiday one week earlier.

 

At the end of 1941, the Congress officially declared that Thanksgiving and consequently Black Friday would be celebrated on the fourth Thursday and Friday equivalently in November - guaranteeing an extra week of shopping before Christmas for shoppers.

Black Friday became a national term in the 1990s.

Even though the event had been celebrated in all of the United States for years before that, the term Black Friday was mostly used in Philadelphia. Linguist and executive editor Benjamin Jimmer told the BBC that the term didn't become widespread until the mid-90s.

From there it spread to the rest of the world, with the term having gained extreme commerciality in Kenya the last few years.

Black Friday Scams

A woman carrying her shopping bag. [Photo: Courtesy]

A study by WalletHub showed that an average 14% of the products that are sold on Black Friday have prices similar to their regular ones. The same study came to the conclusion that 17% of the products sold on Black Friday are actually more expensive than they are on Amazon.

These statistics may be worrying and may stop you from buying on Black Friday. However, you shouldn’t worry as long as you are grabbing offers from trusted sources such as black-friday.global.

Kenya is still working on perfecting the Black Friday shopping experience

Kenyan companies and in particular online stores such as Jumia, Electrohub, Mimi and others are determined to give you the best Black Friday experience in 2018. In 2016 and 2017, smaller shopping websites had issues with downtime because systems couldn’t handle high traffic; improvements have been made to many of those stores so this year shopping will be easier than ever before.

Jumia was the Black Friday champion of 2017

Jumia, the largest online retailer in Kenya for products like electronics, shoes, fashion and more. During Black Friday 2017, Jumia’s website had over 10 million visitors and it was one of the most profitable days for the company.

There you go! These are the most interesting Black Friday facts from Kenya and the world that can help you gain a better insight on the upcoming event! This way you can surprise your friends the next time you are together and don’t forget to prepare for the 23rd of November!