Businesses registered “decent” sales during Black Friday in what was a mixed bag for local retailers, the chamber of small and medium enterprises said on Friday night.  

In a statement, the Chamber of SMEs said that following a tough pandemic season, businesses were looking forward to making up for it during this years' Black Friday sales. 

The chamber said the absolute majority of businesses did better than they did in 2020, and some got closer to their figures in 2019.  However, there was still a lot of room for improvement. 

“It is clear that Malta's economy is still suffering the effects of COVID-19 and also other challenges coupled with this,” the chamber said.  

What do people buy in the sales?

The chamber said that, as usual, gadgets, electronics and appliances proved the most popular purchase this year. 

Businesses changed strategy this year making their offers available on a longer stretch of time, the chamber said. 

This, the chamber said, helped with sales figures. 

In fact, some leading players wished they had more stock in hand to sell, the chamber said.  

Meanwhile, other items had a slower start to Black Friday but started picking up later in the afternoon. 

Early customers looking for a bargain or two at Scan on Friday morning Photo: Giulia Magri

The chamber said businesses need to register higher sales figures to make up for “the hard months which are now behind us”. 

“The challenges that businesses had to overcome this year were not small,” the chamber said. 

Furthermore, a spike in the price of international shipping put further pressure on businesses, and was in part responsible for sticking issues across some sectors.  

Many businesses are also suffering serious delays when importing from the UK as Brexit left some scrambling to get stocks cleared in time for Black Friday.

Finally, a heavy storm on Thursday made last-minute re-stocking for Black Friday difficult.