Black Friday is the Friday after Thanksgiving and it traditionally marks the start of the Christmas shopping season and it’s ideally the busiest shopping day of the year. In Kenya, this season is premiered by massive discounts and promotion. Retailers offer deals on electronics, fashion household items, fashion etc. This draws large crowds both in physical stores as well as online stores. Black Friday has been running throughout the month of November and major discounts are expected to happen on the last Friday of the month.
This event has been adopted in our country and it has been adopted as a major shopping event by online retailers and larger retail chains. E-commerce giants such as Jumia, Kilimall and Copia have been offering extensive black Friday campaigns with great eye-catching deals to individuals across the country. In 2023, e-commerce saw a substantial rise with platforms such as jumia reporting growth. Jumia alone saw a 30.0% increase in sales year over year. Between 2022 and 2024, the most recent data points show an increase of 83.0% in sales of black Friday 2024, reflecting an upward trend in e-commerce. This surge in sales has also had a significant impact in Nigeria and South Africa as well.
There are several factors that have fueled this growth. First and foremost is the widespread availability of smartphones. The contribution of smartphones to this success is due to the fact that smartphones have become widely available. According to the data provided in the Kenyan wall street (2023), approximately 61.0% of the population own a smartphone. This means that the majority of the population have access to ecommerce platforms effortlessly. Secondly, the integration of mobile money solutions such as Mpesa is among the main driving factors. This is brought about by the seamless combination of smartphones and the mobile payment services which makes it convenient to handle online transactions and boost e-commerce sales. Social media marketing has been a main influencer as well following the growing number of content creators and influencers rising in the market leveraging on platforms such as Facebook, Tiktok and Instagram. These influences have paid a vital role in connecting consumers to online deals via targeted market campaigns.
Industry experts have viewed this sales boost as a sign of Kenya’s growing digital economy. Analysts have also predicted that the country’s e-commerce market will continue to expand, especially as platforms continue to innovate with personal shopping experiences and flexible payment options. With current and predicted future trends black Friday has proven to be a cornerstone of Kenyan retail culture, transforming how consumers and businesses interact with the digital age.
