America’s Black Friday vs. MENA’s White Friday

  • Date: 30-Nov-2020
  • Source: Al Bawaba
  • Sector:Economy
  • Country:Middle East
  • Who else needs to know?

America’s Black Friday vs. MENA’s White Friday

Black Friday has everyone saving up and rallying to get the best deals!

Even though it was first created in the US, the concept of Black Friday soon swept into the MENA region as well. What is known as Black Friday in the western world became known as White Friday in MENA.

First introduced in 2014 by the largest e-commerce site in the Arab World, Souq.com (now known as amazon.ae), White Friday became the go-to method to draw customers and boost their sales.

However, the question remains, is the concept of Black Friday implemented successfully in the MENA region? And are the discounts worth it?

Trivia

Black Friday was first created in 1960 in Philadelphia as a symbol for the beginning of the Christmas shopping season. The color black comes from the idea that back then black ink indicated profit.

When it comes to the MENA region, we have UAE who was ranked among the biggest spenders on Black Friday in 2018, with a 1913% increase in sales. Discounts this year reached up to 90% in UAE with leading companies like amazon.ae and its rival noon.com offering up to 70% and 80% discounts, respectively. 

UAE is not the only big spender on Black Friday. Based on a survey that