As the final few days of ‘a great discount’ linger following White Friday and Cyber Monday sales, the time has come to look back and reevaluate the marketing playbook.
While consumers in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region spent 12 per cent more during the sale week in 2024, compared with the previous year, the year-on-year effect on revenues and the associated excitement around sales and discounts has waned considerably, according to data from Admitad.
Admitad studied more than 10 million orders placed during sale weeks and the regular periods without any special discount, including more than 400,000 orders in the MENA region.
The excitement of previous years, when sales peaks grew manifold, is a thing of the past, the study stated. While ecommerce is booming in the country, its shining symbol, White Friday, is gradually losing its hold on the minds of shoppers.
Why is the White Friday discount going by the wayside?
Although the sale week showed an increase in the number of sales compared to last year, its effect dissolved among other important events and sale periods, the Admitad study stated.
Nowadays, almost every brand has switched to an aggressive discounting policy. Stores and marketplaces often have internal sales, on top of layering discounts for holidays and events, and customers regularly receive coupons and promo codes with special offers.
Discount fatigue is increasingly affecting customer behaviour. Customers prefer to save items to favourites and wish lists to wait for the best price on specific items. Sale periods no longer generate the same excitement.
Simultaneously, there is growing distrust in discounts themselves. Many marketplace sellers and individual stores are constantly artificially inflating prices in order to get into the biggest discount picks. These unscrupulous practices have undermined shoppers’ faith in the benefits of White Friday deals, the Admitad study highlighted.
The impact of the global recession and inflation is also taking its toll: shoppers are less likely to make impulse purchases and more likely to form a basket in advance. The average check in MENA during White Friday week this year rose more than 13 per cent to US $38.
Which customer engagement channels are the most effective?
MENA shoppers are increasingly savvy about the intricacies of online shopping and are more active in using tools to get the best price.
As predicted, the availability of cashback played a big role for shoppers with more than 25 per cent of White Week purchases were made using it. Only 13 per cent of purchases were made using coupons and promo codes.
Another major trend is a continuous increase in influencer sales in the region. According to the influencer marketing platform Takefluence their share in total number of attracted sales went up from 12.5 per cent last year to more than 16 per cent in 2024.
For a long time, the only drawbacks of collaborating with influencers were high prices and unpredictable results. However, more influencers are becoming affiliate partners, which is increasing the transparency and efficiency of integrations. In 2024, the number of content creators working under the affiliate model has grown by 11 per cent.
More than 25 per cent of White Friday sales came from affiliate stores (websites with catalogs and thematic feeds of goods of different brands). Another 19 per cent of clients were influenced by reviews in online media and articles on content platforms. In terms of effectiveness they were followed by contextual ads (11 per cent) and mobile apps (5 per cent).
The hot period also had a positive impact on the revenues of affiliate publishers, who actively attracted orders for remunerations. Their profits grew by 49 per cent during the sale week.
The transparency and predictability of attracting customers through the CPA model is motivating more and more MENA brands to include collaboration with affiliate networks in their marketing strategy.
