Retail is already moving at a Black Friday pace, with stores intensively making the necessary preparations to be ready to welcome the institution, which has been implemented in Cyprus in recent years.
After the return to normality at Limassol Port and the avoidance of a possible commercial blockade during such a critical period for retail, given that the Black Friday period and the month of December are by far the busiest commercial days of the year, stores are feverishly preparing for Black Friday, with the first advertising campaigns underway.
Speaking to InBusinessNews, the General Secretary of the Pancyprian Association of Retail Trade (PASYLE), Marios Antoniou, stated that the situation with the strike of the A' carriers at the port of Limassol has been normalised, on the one hand with the release of containers with perishable products with a short expiration date and on the other hand with the catalytic intervention of the President of the Republic, which led to the end of the strike and the return of the carriers to their work.
"We avoided any commercial 'heart attack' and its consequences, especially in such a period, with Black Friday and December just around the corner," Antoniou pointed out, noting that the port of Limassol is the most important entry point for product imports into the Cypriot market.
With payday and the hope for a wintery atmosphere as allies
Asked about this year's Black Friday and the expected response, the General Secretary of PASYLE stressed that expectations for retail are high, noting that the event will peak on the last Friday of the month (28 November), during a period that coincides with the payment of wages for the majority of employees.
"Traditionally, the payment of wages helps consumption the most. Retail will participate in the institution in full this year, including clothing and footwear, with eyes clearly focused on technology products and hopes placed, among other things, on the expected change in the weather scenario," Marios Antoniou said in this regard, explaining, however, that the current weather conditions are not helping the winter clothing and footwear markets.
The range of discounts
This year's Black Friday discounts are not expected to exceed 40%, as anything beyond this percentage usually concerns older store stock.
Consumers are going to take advantage, as every year, of the abundance of choices in physical and online stores, on the one hand, and the multitude of choices from large foreign e-commerce platforms (such as Shein, Temu, Amazon) on the other.
Pie growth and steady momentum
The dynamics of retail trade are evident from both the data from CySTAT and the data from Eurostat. More specifically, the retail trade turnover value index increased by 6.3% in September 2025 compared to the corresponding month of the previous year, while in the same month the retail trade turnover volume index increased by 9% compared to October 2024, based on CySTAT data while, according to Eurostat, the highest annual increase in the total retail trade volume in Cyprus was recorded in September this year (+8.5%).
"The market pie has grown, a fact that is attributed both to the record tourist arrivals and to permanent residents, including, among others, Russians, Ukrainians and Israelis, whose purchasing power significantly helps retail trade," the General Secretary of PASYLE emphasised.
Despite the fragile and rapidly changing developments under which the retail sector has been operating in recent years, both domestically and abroad, the industry, with its quick reflexes, manages to effectively adapt to new conditions and, in some cases, to benefit from any adverse events.
(Source: InBusinessNews)
