The Ministry of Social Rights, Consumption and Agenda 2030 detected that the 70% of discounts on e-commerce operators during the last Black Friday were false or misleading. The department headed by Pablo Bustinduy monitored more than 800 products in 19 retailers, between September and December 2023. Irregularities were found, such as raising the price of a product days before applying the sales, the use of coupons to simulate false sales or inciting impulsive purchases with supposedly offers. limited.
Also the Organization of Consumers and Users (OCU) alert for fraudulent offers. He assures that this year there is a «lower purchase intention» of the population this Black Friday 2024, due to the distrust generated in consumers by the existence of this type of offers. Consumption already warned last week that would sanction to those businesses that carried out false sales during Black Friday, making use of a European price monitoring system.
Even so, the OCU concludes that the 76% of their respondents intend to leverage Black Friday offers, that is less than 84% last year. Consumers seem increasingly aware of the nature of the offers, and numerous Internet portals offer tools to check the price history of products, thus trying to reveal fraudulent discounts.
«A third of those surveyed say that there really are offers on Black Friday, but that they are not so much, because, taking into account the experience of other years, they have seen that some pages, especially web pages, use these days for, days before, raise the price and then offer products that appear to be on sale, but really are not,” he explained. Ileana IzverniceanuDirector of Communication at OCU, in statements to Europa Press Television.
Contradictory estimates
However, there are several consulting firms that predict an increase in sales and consumer spending at this time. Rocket Digitala technology and marketing consultancy, has carried out an independent study on consumer trends at this time. They assure that This year’s spending will increase on Black Fridayprojecting the average disbursement at 295 euros on average, 18% more than in 2023. These data contrast with the OCU estimates, but it could mean that fewer consumers intend to take advantage of the dates, although they intend to spend more money than the last year.
This expected increase in average expenditure is attributed to a more controlled inflationfalling interest rates and a rebound in confidence. Likewise, they highlight that Spanish businesses are gambling up to a 40% of your annual turnover on Black Friday, 60% in the case of businesses that focus entirely on online sales. Being a day when consumerism rises to maximum power, it is not surprising that businesses put so much at stake.
On the other hand, Oneya fintech, focuses its study for this Black Friday on the advancement of Christmas shopping. This company estimates that more than 7 out of 10 Spaniards will take advantage of this date to do their Christmas shopping. Among the reasons, the possible savings of bringing forward holiday expenses stand out, due to the Black Friday discounts. Despite the general distrust in the offers, consumers value the possible savings that can be achieved by bringing forward Christmas spending.
Young people choose to finance
They allege that, according to their estimates, the 68% of Spaniards will invest the same than last year in their purchases, while 16% will spend more than last year and 2% will not make any disbursement these holidays. With respect to financing, it is striking that a 7% of Spaniards will only buy in establishments that offer forms of financingespecially young people between 18 and 24 years old.
Faced with a panorama of reduced purchasing power, young people see financing options as a more accessible option for their purchases, especially in technology, where product prices can be high.
Regarding the budget of each consumer, Oney states that 7 out of 10 do it when doing Christmas shopping. However, 20% exceed it, and 13% directly deny having a budget for their purchases. The categories of gifts (61%), food (40%), fashion (30%) and leisure (29%) will account for the majority of purchases.
Idealfor its part, has released its annual study on Black Friday trends. They claim that only one in ten Spaniards will not buy on this Black Friday. The reasons are several: 22% say they prefer to pay attention to their budget, 26% want to limit their consumption, 25% say they have everything they need and 37% doubt that prices are really cheaper, coinciding with Consumer warnings.
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