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The stats: here’s how big Black Friday really was

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Black Friday was bigger this year than ever before, with retailers - both online and offline - offering massive discounts on a wide range of products.

There were long queues, insane crowds, stampedes (yes!) and a few websites even crashed under the magnitude of interest.

Online shopping site Spree offered massive discounts with one LBD offered at a ginormous 95% discount. The R399 dress was reduced to R20 and sold out within 30 minutes.

READ MORE: Shop our gift guide filled with dopeness

Spree

Spree’s traffic increased with 348% vs the daily average for the month and had orders of more than 10 times higher than the month’s daily average.

“The growth of the day has been phenomenal with 142% more orders compared to our Black Friday sale in 2015,” says Vincent Hoogduijn, CEO of Media24 Ecommerce, which includes Spree.

Spree’s mobile orders were also 263% higher than the sale day last year.

“In 2015, the ratio between mobile and desktop purchases on Black Friday was 1:3. This year almost 50% of all transactions took place on mobile – an indication that South Africans were shopping on the go and taking advantage of the best deals from wherever they were,” says Hoogduijn.

Takealot

Takealot suffered some technical difficulties with their site crashing in the middle of their Blue Dot Black Friday sale, but with up to 60% off over 10,000 products it was hardly surprising that their site was inundated with more than 300% of the usual traffic they would expect on a “normal” Friday during the festive season.

The site has seen a 260% annual increase in Black Friday orders since they launched their first Blue Dot sale in 2012 and 2016 was their most successful year to date.

The most popular items? Tech and gaming products. The first 50 PlayStation 4 consoles (bundled with God of War 3 Remastered) sold by 00:05AM on Friday - 5 minutes after the Blue Dot Sale launched.

TVs were also hot property with sales doubling the initial numbers projected.

READ MORE: #WednesdayWishlist: buy this and slay like the cool kids

Zando

With most purchases being made through the retailer’s online app, Zando reported an increase of orders by a factor of 11 compared to an average day in 2016.

Dresses, boots  and  sneakers  topped  the  list  of  most  popular buys with the largest purchasing demographic being Gauteng. One item was sold every second the site visitors went up by more than 300%.

Just imagine what Black Friday 2017 will look like?!

Check out the craziness from this year's sale here

Read more:

- 9 small ways to save your hard-earned money

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