Romanian retailers, who chose to move the famous Black Friday a week earlier, on November 22, are expected to sell some EUR 40 million worth of products during the heavy discount day, according to payment processor Pay U.

The company expects around 400,00 Romanians to buy something on that day, when retailers such as Carrefour, Domo, eMag, PC Garage, among others, have special offers available.

Many of them started preparing for this peak sales period at the beginning of the year, and payment processors too have followed the trend. Pay U's estimations point to an average purchase of EUR 100 per buyer.

“This year we started preparing for Black Friday in spring. After discussions with large retailers, we optimised the platform for online payments to face the high payments estimated for the first hours of the morning,” said Daniel Nicolescu, General Manager PayU Romania.

The company expects IT online stores and those who sell home appliances to up sales four-fold on the Romanian Black Friday, but Nicolescu expects 40 percent increases in fashion, toy and book sales too.

Last year, Black Friday sales, which happened on November 29, similarly to the US, were higher than expected for most retailers who joined the discount frenzy. The largest online retailer eMag was overwhelmed by orders, despite having doubled its stocks compared to the previous year. The retailer sold EUR 12 million worth of products on Friday, 20 percent more than the company's estimations, and sales continued during the weekend, adding EUR 3.7 million to the revenues.

The retailer twice had to add more products to the discounted stock after the initial stock was sold. The final stock – some 120,000 products – had been negotiated with suppliers for about eight months before Black Friday. Total discounts applied on this products reached EUR 5 million.

editor@romania-insider.com