00:06who doesn't love a good bargain in south africa november has become a month-long hunt for discounts
00:11and for male makeup artist jay farassi it's the perfect time to pick up the spoils he's been
00:16eyeing all year i think it's exciting because i can finally stock up on like a lot of products
00:21uh for a fraction of the price so there's a lot of sales coming in around this time of year
00:26so
00:26that's what i look forward to the most and also because i'm a content creator i get to get equipment
00:30at half the price this year jay has another date on his shopping calendar singles day started by
00:37four chinese university students in the 1990s to celebrate singlehood it soon took on a new life
00:43of its own in 2009 alibaba turned the date into a 24-hour online promotional event now it's making
00:52inroads across the world in countries as far away as south africa they want to promote spoiling
00:59yourself shopping online and most of the stuff they also are discounted if things are cheap
01:04you might as well go for it like prices are high right now so every bargain you can get
01:10or every like discount you can get i would take it personally singles day on 11 november is still
01:16relatively small in south africa compared with black friday but its discounts are drawing in shoppers
01:22like jay and the platforms behind it are growing and in november that appetite goes into overdrive
01:29but behind every online purchase there is a very real operation this is one day only warehouse and
01:36here is where everything is picked packed and sent for delivery november is always more than double any
01:44other month of the year and black friday itself shoots out more than double any other day of the year
01:50i think what a lot of people do is that they save for you know a long time and then
01:55they say okay
01:56cool as november hits i'm going to be on the lookout to find good deals international platforms such as
02:02sheen and tamu have intensified the competition flooding the markets with cheaper options added to that
02:08is the influence of social media people are shopping straight off instagram straight out of tiktok
02:13um which is amazing but i think also just endorsement of brands um and so user generated content has
02:22really really impacted and affected how people will buy but is the shopping bonanza driving more spending
02:29or simply helping consumers stretch their budgets in a tough economy top-end consumers are just spending
02:35more however everybody else is still buying more but they're often focusing on the black friday sales and the
02:41uh the black november sales so that they can get lower prices on the essentials that they're going
02:45to need anyway cash remains king in south african shopping centers still draw massive foot traffic
02:51during the november rush but the online market is steadily taking a bigger slice of the retail basket
02:58and generates almost a billion dollars accounting for around 10 percent of retail sales
