Record-breaking Black Friday in online orders

The power of promotions: How uncertainty turned into record spending?

Black Friday promotions exceeded previous expectations this year: Compared to the 17% predicted in PwC’s late October research, 44% of online shoppers, around 1.9 million people, bought in the promotions during the Black Friday (BF) period. The high number indicates that many of those who were initially undecided were approached with a good offer. While the realized and planned per capita spending – 138 thousand and 130 thousand forints – did not differ significantly from each other, the actual number of customers ultimately resulted in a much larger purchase amount: online spending reached 260 billion forints (compared to the preliminary estimate of 175-220 billion).

“The outstanding participation is due to this year’s truly favorable promotions, which encouraged many to make purchases. On the other hand, the more cautious spending during the year was replaced by bolder purchases. Together, these two factors significantly contributed to Black Friday spending exceeding preliminary expectations to such an extent,” pointed out Szabolcs Timár, Senior Manager at PwC Hungary and head of the research.

55% of customers bought a product for themselves that they had already purchased anyway would have, but now they got it cheaper. 48% also bought Christmas gifts, and in fact, 30% of Christmas gifts were already added to the baskets during the BF period. This indicates that consumers are increasingly consciously taking advantage of the sale periods during the festive preparations.

“Online shopping has continued to grow, the role of foreign web stores has also grown, while physical stores have faded into the background. Customers have become more aware, they are taking better advantage of the sales, and more and more people are planning their holiday spending in advance”

– Timár Szabolcs drew attention.

78% of online shoppers chose a domestic web store, but every third customer also ordered from a foreign web store. The role of traditional stores has declined: only 16% bought in a physical store as part of a BF sale. The most popular product categories are technology (39%), including smartphones and their accessories, but clothing (25%), makeup (17%), toys and books (14-14%) also ranked high. Customer satisfaction reached a high value of 4.14 on a five-point scale.

Christmas spending also exceeds previous expectations

According to the research, 85% of online shoppers, or 3.67 million people, plan to buy gifts for Christmas, and on average, they give gifts to nearly 6 people per person. Almost 16 thousand forints are spent on a gift, so the per capita spending reaches 92.5 thousand forints, which means a total Christmas gift market of 340 billion forints – this also far exceeds the October estimate of 260 billion forints, and also last year’s preliminary calculations of 261 billion forints. The increase is due to the average spending being almost 15 thousand forints higher and the number of people who end up buying gifts expanding by 6 percentage points.

Among the places of purchase, domestic online stores continue to lead (64%), but shopping malls (43%), traditional stores (36%) and foreign webshops (25%) also play a significant role. When buying a Christmas gift, the most important decision-making criteria are price, promotions and discounts (67%), but convenience (36%), reliability (48%) and product selection (42%) are also determining factors. Sustainability and support for domestic businesses are currently less emphasized (7% and 13%).

Gifts of delicacies

The list of Christmas gift hits is still led by technical products (36%), but books (31%), children’s toys (27%), clothing (23%), makeup and perfume products (19%) are also popular. 63% of gift givers also choose food products, most often dessert specialties, chocolate (29%), coffee (17%), wine or champagne (17%), parlor sugar (14%) and soft drinks (14%). 24% of the gift budget, approximately 81 billion forints, is spent on