Black Friday, which was only introduced in Romania in 2011, has become the biggest shopping event of the year. Some 78% of Romanians aged between 18 and 65 have heard of the Black Friday discounts and 60% would like to buy something in this year’s event, according to a survey by Kantar Millward Brown Romania.

With such high interest from the consumers, it’s no wonder that most of the big retailers in Romania have joined the Black Friday campaign. What started as an online event, brought to the local market by eMAG, the biggest e-commerce platform in Romania, has expanded into the offline. Big retailers such as Carrefour and Metro, telecom operators, private medical services providers, and others have joined the Black Friday mania.

Although some have decided to turn this into a week or even a month of discounts to increase sales, the highest orders are recorded in one day, the Friday when most online retailers launch their discounts. The Black Friday in Romania usually comes one week before the original one in the U.S. for a simple reason: the last Friday in November comes to close to December 1, when Romania celebrates its National Day. This doesn’t give retailers enough time to deliver all the orders, as both November 30 (St. Andrew) and December 1 are non-working days in Romania.

This year, Romania’s Black Friday takes place on November 18. The retailers have prepared more discounts than in the previous years. eMAG boasts to have one million products at discounted prices, including TV sets, smartphones and tablets, appliances, perfumes, tires, and frying pans. Each year, the retailer has tried to come up with new things to sell at a discount on Black Friday. In 2015, eMAG sold discounted gold bars in partnership with Piraeus Bank. This year, it will sell electricity supply contracts at a discount in partnership with German supplier E.On. eMAG also sells 2,500 invitations to the biggest indoor New Year’s Eve party, which will take place at Romexpo.

There’s no limit to what Romanian retailers will sell on this day. For example, another online retailer, evoMag, plans to sell apartments at a discount. Several developers have agreed to offer EUR 10,000 discounts for apartments reserved via the evoMag platform on Black Friday. To benefit from this discount, clients have to pay a RON 4,999 (EUR 1,110) fee. evoMag also sells Ford, Skoda, and Seat cars at discounts of up to 25%.

Local classified site autovit.ro also has discounts for cars while storia.ro, the real estate branch of classifieds site olx.ro, sells real estate properties at a discount.

Medicover, one of the top private healthcare operators, has also joined the event by offering up to 50% discount for various medical services and subscription packages purchased on Black Friday.

Local dental practice ABC Eurodent also offers discounts of up to 90% for the services purchased on Black Friday, including scaling, whitening, and dental implants.

It seems that everyone in Romania wants to sell something on Black Friday. A local political party wants to take advantage of this day to draw more members. The nationalist United Romania Party (PRU) members have the chance to get free smartphones on Black Friday. The gifts come from the richer party members.

Black Friday: Which are the most popular products and stores in Romania?

editor@romania-insider.com