Aussies Lash Out at ASOS Over Black Friday, Cyber Monday Blunder

UK fast fashion retailer, ASOS, has been slammed on social media after telling customers it would be participating in the annual Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping event, only to then exclude Australian consumers from the action.

“The wait is over (and you didn’t even have to wait ‘til Friday) 20 percent off EVERYTHING begins now!” ASOS said in a post on Instagram last week.

However, the popular clothing retailer failed to specify in its post that not all of its markets would have access to the discounts.

“What about NZ?!” One user asked, while shoppers from Russia also expressed confusion over the lack of a sale in the region “They are ignoring Black Friday in Russia now! Can you imagine? I want 20 percent off”.

Singapore and Australia were also among the regions that never received access to the company’s annual sales event. “Why is Australia not eligible for the Black Friday sale? Are we not people?” Innavitska wrote on Instagram, while Kfoxx demanded to know “Where the f**k” the Black Friday sale was.

ASOS responded to its customers’ angry comments, claiming Australian shoppers were not eligible for its Black Friday discounts because they already got special discounts during Click Frenzy’s annual event earlier in the month.

“We do not have a Black Friday sale going on at the moment for a number of selected countries”, the company explained. “However, New Zealand is not one of them. We time our promotions with what makes sense in each market, and that sometimes varies by country. For example, our recent Click Frenzy promotion was not offered outside of Australia and New Zealand,” the business continued.

Shoppers, however, were not placated by the company’s response, claiming it was too little too late, and that ASOS’ “conflicting messages” were screwing over Australian shoppers.

“I was ready to spend big…” one user claimed,” Looks like every other retailer in Australia that’s doing Black Friday is getting my money and looks like I’m not alone.”

The retailer’s decision to not run a Black Friday sale for Aussie consumers is an interesting one, as a number of its competitors in the local marketplace, including Boohoo, were all taking advantage of the extra online traffic during the annual sales event.

While Black Friday never used to be a big event in Australia, the popularity of the post-Thanksgiving Day sale has grown exponentially in recent years, with Black Friday Global predicting that 37 percent of Aussies would shop online during the sale, while 57 percent would shop both online and in-store.

Local marketplaces like Kogan, Catch.com.au, and Amazon and eBay’s Australian branches also offered sales during the event.

The company did try saving face later in the day, after continued harassment from angry customers, telling users who didn’t have access to discounts to “keep an eye out on Facebook and Twitter” for other promotions the company holds each year.

The comment didn’t seem to do much though, as complaints continued to roll in.

“Thirty percent off sale, now, or I march down to headquarters, start whooping a**”, one angry customer said, while another exclaimed, “Fark your summer ballsack.”

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