How Black Friday/White Friday 2017 Impacted Regional E-Commerce

White Friday, popularly known in the U.S. as Black Friday, draws thousands of people to shop both online and in store every year. It is called White Friday in the region because Friday is the Muslim day of prayer, so White Friday is more culturally appropriate. This year, regional e-commerce sites cashed in on the trend by offering discounts to rival their brick and mortar counterparts.

To find out how their performance was affected by White Friday, Forbes Middle East send out questionnaires to e-commerce platforms asking about gross merchandise value, the companies’ presence in the region, top markets, top selling categories, subscriber base, and how their sales were affected during White Friday 2017 compared with last year.

Most companies doubled or tripled their sales. Dubai-based SOUQ.com, which is the oldest e-commerce site surveyed, logged the biggest shopping event in its history with one million deals in a four-day period, and with double the number of sales compared to last year’s White Friday event. Jumia, which was founded in Nigeria in 2012, drew the same number of sales at SOUQ.com, despite a longer White Friday sales period of 31 days. The youngest company, Algerie Market, was founded in 2016 and earned $40,000 in sales during its 10-day White Friday period.

Electronics were the highest selling category for most of the e-commerce websites that participated in the questionnaire.

SOUQ.com

White Friday length: 4 days
Number of deals: 1 million
White Friday 2017 versus 2016: More than double the number of sold items
Top selling categories: fashion, beauty, electronics, grocery
Active customers: N/A
Headquarters: U.A.E.
Founded: 2005
Jumia

White Friday length: 31 days
Number of deals: 1 million
White Friday 2017 versus 2016: N/A
Top selling categories: Phones and tablets
Active customers: 1.6 million
Headquarters: Nigeria
Founded: 2012
AWOK

White Friday length: 4 days
Number of sales: 300,000
White Friday 2017 versus 2016: Triple the number of sold
Top selling categories: Electronics and fashion
Active customers: 5 million
Headquarters: U.A.E.
Founded: 2013
Letstango

White Friday length: 4 days
Number of sales: N/A
White Friday 2017 versus 2016: 25% growth in gross merchandise value
Top selling categories: Phones, TVs and laptops
Active customers: 500,000
Headquarters: U.A.E.
Founded: 2013
Algerie Market

White Friday length: 10 days
Number of sales: $40,000 gross merchandise value
White Friday 2017 versus 2016: N/A
Top selling category: Appliances
Active customers: 3,000
Headquarters: Algeria
Founded: 2016