Perfume is top buy as early online shoppers scent out Black Friday deals

Online shoppers in South Africa are demonstrating both a love of feeling good and practicality on Black Friday.

Providing an early snapshot of shopping trends on Black Friday 2018, online retailer Takealot.com said it had already seen a record number of visitors to its site.

Its annual Blue Dot Sale went live at 12.01 and generated more than R11.5m in transactions in the first hour alone, surpassing, by 8.30am Friday, the R87m GMV (Gross Merchandise Volume) generated on Black Friday 2017.

Tommy Hilfiger For Her perfume was the initial bestseller, followed by DStv Explora and Pampers nappies.

In terms of highest-value items sold, four out of the top five bestsellers were smart televisions and gaming consoles (like Xbox One).

Julie-Anne Walsh, chief marketing officer at Takealot.com, said: "All of the preparation done for the enormous increase in shoppers has paid off and the site performed well, staying online."

However, intermittent technical issues with Takealot’s credit card payment provider resulted in some customers experiencing difficulties with credit card transactions. Takealot said it would deactivate its credit card payment gateway when necessary, until its payment provider "has fully restored its service". Its customers were encouraged to make use of alternative payment methods, including EFT via iPay and Payfast, among others.