A number of online retailers in the UAE, including Souq.com, CrazyDeals.com, SouqPrices.com and Namshi.com will be hosting White Friday sales (equivalent of Black Friday in the western world), offering what they claim are unprecedented discounts and deals.
“After a remarkable and historic White Friday 2014, this year we have committed to ensuring our customers an even better experience with a greater number of exclusive and unprecedented offers, that are set to drive sales to reach up to double last year’s,” said Ronaldo Mouchawar, CEO & Co-Founder, Souq.com.
One of the largest online retailers in the Middle East, Souq.com aims to sell 100,000 mobile phones in four days (November 25 to 28) in addition to a host of other products as part of the 10,000 deals that it claims it will host over the four days.
“During the year, we added thousands of brands and partners across all categories – to launch 10,000 deals, a huge boost from the two thousand we had last year,” said Mouchawar.
The retailer hopes to sell two items per second, and expects 12 million visitors from the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Egypt over this period.
In addition, the retailer said that those using their MasterCard credit card to make purchases will receive a further 10 per cent off all deals.
Several other UAE-based retailers are also cashing in on the US’ ‘Black Friday’ sales bonanza. Black Friday is the day following Thanksgiving Day in the US (the fourth Thursday of November), and is now treated as the official beginning of the Christmas shopping season in the US. Since 2005, it has been followed by Cyber Monday – another day for online retailers to offer ‘massive’ discounts.
According to a forecast by Adobe's Digital Index, US online sales on Cyber Monday will reach $3 billion for the first time this year, making it the largest single day for digital sales in history. That figure would represent a growth rate of 12 per cent year over year. Sales in 2012 were just below $2 billion.
But even as UAE residents look forward to the Black Friday / Cyber Monday deals, Nitin Bhandari, CEO of Skyfire and senior vice president of products for Opera Software Solutions, says the days are as exciting for cybercriminals as they are for shoppers.
“Cybercrime by way of credit card theft costs US consumers billions of dollars a year,” said Bhandari. “Online shopping numbers radically increase every year, making the months leading up to the holidays a playground for cyber thieves.”
Bhandari provides five tips to help shoppers stay secure in the midst of online holiday shopping.
1. Be vigilant in in public areas: Don’t expose your computer or mobile screen to the eyes of strangers, especially when a credit card number is visible.
2. Update your malware protection. Even if a consumer conducts all transactions on a secure site, it is possible for the computer to be hacked or running malware, which means all data entered can still be stolen.
3. Be aware of public Wi-Fis. Using a public Wi-Fi service without encryption allows anyone the ability to hack into the connection and collect a user’s information.
4. Use online shopping sites wisely. According to Bhandari, many websites do not properly protect the data they collect. Shoppers can know the site is safe if it has a green lock in the address bar, which signifies the company has met strict standards with respect to protecting data they collect from customers.
5. Scrutinise your bank statements. Finally, Bhandari said shoppers should frequently monitor bank statements for suspicious transactions. Many times, cyber theft is done in small amounts in order not to draw suspicion.