Americans were not the only shoppers to embrace Black Friday sales, as Koreans flocked to online stores to take advantage of huge discounts. (Image : Yonhap)
SEOUL, Nov.30 (Korea Bizwire) – Americans were not the only shoppers to embrace Black Friday sales, as Koreans flocked to online stores to take advantage of huge discounts.
According to Mall Tail, the largest domestic overseas online shopping agent, the number of consumers who visited their site doubled on November 28 (which was November 27 in the U.S.).
Officials at Mall Tail commented that there were more ‘hot deal’ items (products with larger discounts) compared to last year.
American clothing brands Polo and Gap were especially popular.
Last year, Polo’s sales were mostly limited to out of season products, but this year prices of popular products such as down jackets were lowered, attracting consumers.
Besides clothing, electronics prices were also heavily discounted this year.
Vacuum cleaners from Dyson were on sale at discounts of more than 40 percent, close to duty free prices, and external hard drives from Seagate also had their prices cut a great deal.
In the meantime, Mall Tail expected that the number of users would increase as much as 20 percent compared to last year on Black Friday and Cyber Monday (the first Monday after Thanksgiving, when the number of consumers who shop online also increases).
Due to the special season, Mall Tail’s warehouses in the U.S. are busy, and the company has increased staffing by 30 percent.
Black Friday is the day after Thanksgiving, which is the last Friday of November. This year it fell on November 27, and at midnight the sales frenzy started. Department stores and large retailers were filled with people, and fights broke out between customers wanting to purchase the same items.
The number of direct overseas purchases on Black Friday in Korea is expected to be significantly higher than last year.
By Lina Jang (linajang@koreabizwire.com)
