Let’s just look at what is all around us in the name of ‘Clearance Sales’, ‘Flat 50 percent off’ and ‘Annual Sale’ in the last few years. We see the standard demonstration beamed across the big cities and high-class blocks with throngs of people pushing and shoving outside a shop, stampeding through the door the moment a retail outlet opens, fights breaking out as angry shoppers wrestle over that last lawn suit, last garment, last shoe, last lipstick, and last bag left on the rack. Twice a year, a one-day event that leaves the rest of us scratching our heads in bewilderment are the Valentine’s Day and Black Friday, also known as Blessed/Big/White Friday. They have gone on to become a global phenomenon. The former of these events is now synonymous with discounts and promotions, and the latter is one of the biggest sales’ days of the year for many retailers who wish to sell at full-price, or even at high-price. Black Friday, globally, is the onset of the holiday season leading to Christmas in December, when people make their way to stores, malls and the internet to shop. A few years ago, the wave of Black Friday hit Pakistan when Daraz brought out discounts under that banner. Since then price markdowns go all the way up to 80 percent in some cities of Pakistan, and it is now a much-awaited time for people to shop. On the other hand, very much in the bandwagon of the west, is the Valentine’s day. With the arrival of February, people around Pakistan can feel the love that is in the air. The romantic feeling and amorous vibes can be seen buzzing around us in everything: those heart-shaped balloons on every traffic signal; bouquets of roses, over-stocked even at fresh grocery stores-yeah, sold, side by side, fruits and veggies in the neighbourhood corner stores; supermarkets over-flooded to ceilings with teddy bears, chocolates, perfumes and candies; bakeries overbooked with red and heart cakes; red-themed decorated restaurants taking couple bookings only with special Valentine’s menu, including love-conquers-all smoothies and share-the-love prix fixe courses, and sweet couple desserts; and beauty salons offering couple hair and grooming deals. Be the first brand in Pakistan to follow the global Christmas sales trend: stick to your pricing model all year through and concentrate on giving promotions only on Eid and Ramzan sales Valentine’s Day is zestfully celebrated and is a happening event now. On the other hand, Valentine’s Day is deemed ‘against the teachings of Islam’ and a sign of growing western influence. We have a right majority that thinks and operates that way. It is because of them that Black Friday became ‘blessed’ and ‘white’. Just before anyone thinks I am exaggerating, remember the ‘Sisters Day’ celebrated on Feb 14 by a university in Faisalabad, and the ‘Haya (modesty) Walk’ conducted by hundreds of students at one of the largest universites in Lahore. Dozens of people carried placards that said: “Haya is part of faith,” “Say No to V-Day” and “Ba-Hayaa Zindaagi iman ka husn hai” (A modest life is the beauty of faith). And trust me, those protesting students were way more confident and braver to hold that march when compared to students who were scared to celebrate it by just wearing a red dress or a red lippie. One western event is though blatantly celebrated under different white and blessed names when almost all of Pakistan’s retail brands had sales with certainly no cap to discounts. Pakistan’s online shoppers spent a whopping 1.4 billion last year alone, and this number is increasing yearly. While bricks and mortar experienced a spending drop, the unstoppable rise of e-commerce saw online sales exceed 20-30 percent of the total sales, with no sign of decreasing. But that’s only part of the story. For some, Valentine’s Day has become so successful that it has turned into a week-long or a fortnight shopping frenzy or even the whole of February as the month of love. I won’t name it, but you must have understood which international jewellery chain in Pakistan I am referring to. Savvy retailers are coming up with more innovative ways of staying ahead of their competitors to keep full-priced buyers and impulsive shoppers interested for as long as they can. Just like on the Black Friday, all retailers, days and weeks before the big event, arrange dead stock, slow movers or any undesirable stock that only takes up space in the store or tie up a retailer’s capital. This is that time of the year when these products are rolled out on discounts for shoppers to flood in for economical (read as: impulsive) shopping. All products and categories are heavily discounted during the Black Friday for stocks to convert into cash. Many retailers even raise prices and then offer discounts to follow the rat race. On the contrary, on the Valentine’s Day, same retailers, increase their prices. They launch new volumes, flood their stores with new arrivals, and special red collections and menus to attract shoppers for high margin sales. Such is the outcome of all the weeks of planning and preparation that is needed to pull off a successful Valentine’s Day. We asked six of our retail and restaurant clients what it means to them and whether it’s worth it, and we got the reply: “Valentine’s Day is a BIG ONE for us.” Like many other perfumery and beauty retailers, a very well-known international makeup brand regards Valentine’s Day and Black Friday (11/11) at Daraz as two of the biggest dates on its marketing calendar. Last year, in just two days over the Black Friday, the company equalled the revenue it would make during an average month of the year, with the week surrounding it in the top three highest performing weeks of the year. Generally, for beauty retailers, the Black Friday is a big one for stock clearance, and Valentine’s Day is a big one for full-price sales. Subsequently, as a general rule of thumb, it should make a large portion of their November and February forecast and overall sale targets. These brands claim that their customers expect it from them, so they have to make these events exciting. Another amazing trend noticed this year was a three-day make-up gala organised by one of the biggest supermarkets in south Pakistan, between the Blessed Day and Valentine’s Day. The newest of its kind in Pakistani beauty business, the supermarket begin planning for the marketing event in January, opting for ‘markdowns’ that it believed would get better traction than codes. The company started campaigning in December, after Daraz’s 11/11 and 12/12, and ended on a grand beauty sales jackpot. Quite interestingly, the Black Day is always in the master plan for retailers, but they begin to properly plan it immediately after September, looking at what products they might have, what discounts they might do, and how hard they need to push the marketing activities. Same is the case with the Valentine’s Day. Anticipation remains the key, just like for the Black Friday; retailers begin the teaser campaign early-November. For Valentine’s, they start at the commencement of February to drive excitement. They create unique marketing campaigns for Valentine’s Day that differ from normal sale design templates, some make it very obvious while others play around with the colour red overtly and the word ‘Valentine’ covertly. For instance, the Kayseria billboards have just a splash of red, and Bareeze has a red-themed end-of-season sale in February. That’s covert advertising; good job, Team Sefam! Globally, just like retailers keep the Cyber Monday aside for a special, one-off promotion on products and services to give an even better all-round value to their customers, in Pakistan the trend is also increasing for online deals. Amazingly, Pakistan is playing catch-up to a lot of the world when it comes to how their shoppers and online retailers view the Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Christmas Day or Valentine’s Day. We see that brands like Damas, Yay-Vo, Imtiaz, Naheed, Al-Fatah, Esajee’s, Enem Mall, Shoppe, and Giftery expect a spike in store traffic and online sales for those who have webstores, but they note a much larger interest in their promotions on other days of the year. Restaurants and luxury retailers expect a lot of traffic and sales considering Valentine’s Day is the most important retail day for them. No one had expected the Black Friday or Valentine’s Day to become such a big commercial/marketing event until about ten years ago. Now it’s getting bigger and bigger and Pakistan is following the global trend. Retailers that handle omnichannel in Pakistan stock special inventories. They have some really strong red and black promotions and expect double or triple the amount of orders and size of traffic during these marketing events. For many, black and red days can mean 20 to 30 times more traffic than on regular days The majority of the supermarket business comes through beauty segments, and for them, the female demographic is the key and extremely important for any marketing event. On Valentine’s Day, as always! They feel the need to upgrade their capacity when it comes to service infrastructure for the extra traffic. I remember upgrading a customer to a Magento e-commerce platform earlier last year within a week to create a brand-new digital e-commerce experience that would meet its growing brand prominence and specialty retail needs. I believe now the company has the infrastructure and platform to cope with any large spikes in online traffic that occur. Retail is trying to make the most of marketing opportunities; online, a key part of that is that you are able to reach shoppers much more quickly and easier than ever before. But right now, it’s a big day not a huge day for them. I may be saying something completely different in February if figures rise much more than they anticipate. Their products are worth the price they charge for them. There are still a few retailers that buck the trend, opting to abstain from any jump-on-the-bandwagon marketing promotions. Retailers-for instance, Khaadi, Elan, Servis and Sapphire-believe that their products and pricing speak for themselves. They don’t have sales following a trend, say, on Mother’s Day or Valentine’s Day. The brands’ frequency of going on sale is still reasonable. Father’s Day, Mother Day, Black Day, Red Day, this day, and that day are like any other trading day for many, and they don’t do anything differently at all. Some retailers believe that the quality of their product and the level of their customer service do not warrant them to go for straight discounting. They don’t want to reach a place where their customers think that something is worth one price one day and then 30 percent less on another. Their products are worth the price they charge for them. It’s an honest price and one that they believe is reflective of the care and love that has gone into them. I just feel that the Valentine’s Day is a bit of a race to the bottom. We do come across why retailers get involved, mainly, to grab the attention of the customer, but there are many lucky brands and family-run businesses that see this as a short-term tactic. And that made me examine. While it may seem as if the Valentine’s Day is a shopping utopia guaranteeing sales and extra revenue, it’s far from being a one-size-fits-all for retailers. Each retailer is doing what is right for their business, sustainability and future, or they come up with their own unique twist on the event to make it work best for them. All thanks to the current government and business-friendly policies; I wish I was saying that in sarcasm. There is a great deal of pressure on competitive brands to drop their prices during the Valentine’s and its surrounding days. Our advice: do your homework. You must decide if taking part in an orchestrated marketing event for a sales rise is right for your business model. Or be the first brand in Pakistan to follow the global Christmas sales trend: stick to your pricing model all year through and concentrate on giving promotions only on Eid and Ramzan sales. Or manufacture in your own country, optimise your business processes, reduce costs, and be the Louis Vuitton or Tiffany of Pakistan. Don’t slash your prices because your product, brand and service are class apart. Ensure that you give your customers some real value for money all year through. The writer is a techpreneur with a mission to help companies get to grips with their IT and marketing strategies. She can be reached on Twitter @RubabAZ