Brazil’s e-commerce sector has registered a 368% increase in online spending on Black Friday, comScore reports. Its comparison is based on an average pre-holiday November day for a selection of seven leading online retailers operating in the country.
According to the research firm, this is a considerably higher jump than the 63% increase observed in the United States during the same period. This is quite impressive, considering that this tradition is very new in Brazil – a country that doesn’t celebrate Thanksgiving and where Black Friday is not a holiday.
As you may remember, Brazil welcomed its third official edition of Black Friday this year, a commercial operation spearheaded by Busca Descontos, an entity that also imported Free Shipping Day into the country. According to comScore Managing Director for Brazil, Alex Banks, today’s findings prove that the operation has been a success:
“With online spending that is nearly five times the average online shopping day, it’s clear that the heavy promotional activity surrounding Black Friday was successful in getting consumers to shop and spend on the internet. This is, of course, a very positive development for the leading online retailers in Brazil.”
In other words, the controversy that has surrounded Black Friday in Brazil hasn’t stopped the campaign from giving local e-commerce a boost on many fronts. As a matter of fact, the surge was driven by an increase in number of buyers (+185%), but also in average spending (+64%), as detailed below.
Among the companies studied by comScore, Walmart saw the highest percentage increase in sales, followed by local heavyweights Ponto Frio, Casas Bahia and Magazine Luiza. It remains to see if smaller players also noted an impact on their sales as a result of the promotion.
Image credit: Vanderlei Almeida / AFP / Getty Images
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