continues into the actual Friday, then Saturday, then Sunday and often ends with a Cyber Monday. In addition, nowadays, the sales are not as extreme as before with 90% off, but they rather tend to be more natural by offering 15% or 30% off, yet in this case they usually cover not only a limited range of goods, but nearly everything in the shop including new collections and Sales,” says Aigul Safina, Head of Marketing with Yuzhny Shopping Centre in Kazan, (Management Company Lynks Property Management).
Black Friday has a special meaning for this mall. According to Aigul, it was the beginning for the shopping centre in Kazan. In 2013, the first ever sales night was carried out in town and the results were astonishing for both the shopping centre and the tenants. “It was crazy: there were four shoppers per each square metre!”, remembers Aigul.
What did they buy?
Evgenia Khakberdieva, Regional Head of Real Estate with NF Group (ex-Knight Frank Russia), says that physical purchases this year were mostly about postponed goods or expensive discounted goods, such as clothes, shoes, beauty products, perfume.
As for sport, tourism and interior design goods, they were not as popular as they used to be. Russians are still saving and avoiding spontaneous purchases, their decisions have become more rational and some shoppers started shopping for New Year early,” adds Khakberdieva.
She also notices, that in 2022, just like in 2021, the campaign lasted for a week in order to intensify the buyer.
“Today, people are not quick at making decisions, so three days is clearly not enough. A modern shopper needs to have their motivation boosted even when significant discounts are offered,” explains Khakberdieva.
“Black Friday has become routine, as there are many other seasonal sales, yet people still use this opportunity to save some cash in sales and doing some advanced Christmas shopping season as well,” says Oxana Fedulova, Head of Marketing with Fort Group. The tenants of the shopping centres and malls of the holding offer discounts of 30-90%: some on certain goods, some on everything in the store. “This helps them to get rid of the autumn collection before winter and free the shelves for new arrivals”, she explains.
This tenants’ engagement is why Black Friday is interesting for the shopping centres themselves.
“We are aiming at offering deals in all the segments: from electronics, to clothes, to shoes, to food, to services. The closer the engagement of the tenants to 100%, the more enthusiasm and interest shoppers will show to the mall in general,” says Aigul Safina.
“This is when tenants are active at pushing their campaigns, the mall picks up the mood, and the people already know that there is a sales season at the end of November, so additional traffic comes to the mall, which improves the turnover,” agrees Anna Khodosh, Director of Okhta Mall, St-Petersburg. “In case of a successful Black Friday, the increase in traffic may affect the performance of the whole period, which may become a good argument for negotiations with potential or current tenants (such as terms and conditions of the lease rates). As for SMM, it will bring more new subscribers and engage the audience, especially if Black Friday is presented in an interesting way,” argues Aleksey Glebov, Head of Development, Marketing and Advertising with Kosmos Shopping and Entertainment Centre and Koltso Shopping Mall in Chelyabinsk.