Year-end discounts elicit mixed responses from shoppers in Jordan

Year-end discounts for clothing, footwear and jewellery have drawn mixed reactions from shoppers.

“Imported footwear are subject to 57 per cent tax, while clothes are subject to 47 per cent tax,” Asad Qawasmi, a representative of the clothing, footwear and jewellery sector at the Jordan Chamber of Commerce (ACC), told The Jordan Times.

Qawasmi said that e-commerce is the sector’s “competitor”, noting that merchandise sold through e-commerce platforms have a competitive advantage of lower prices due to lower import cost and “zero” cost of running the business.

Many e-platforms are free of charge, shoppers have to only pay for delivery. Moreover, there is no operational cost added on the merchandise’s final price, he said.

“In 2021, the sector witnessed the biggest losses, even when compared with 2020 with all the lockdowns,” Qawasmi stated.

According to Qawasmi, the majority of shoppers in Jordan are “price sensitive”.

A lot of people lost their jobs and are going through a financial crisis, therefore, they are willing to change their shopping habits for a lower price in return, he added.

For Ali Basel, a shopper, the discounts were “not real”.

“I only found few real deals at the shopping centres,” Basel told The Jordan Times.

He noted that it is obvious that retailers are “desperate” to sell their merchandise as there are a lot of “buy two and get one free” offers, although the merchandise available at the market is probably last season’s.

Qawasmi said the market is being monitored continuously during the holiday season, adding that the deals and discounts offered by retailers are “real”.

Meanwhile, Ahmad Hindi, who was interviewed by The Jordan Times at a shopping centre, said that he found the holiday discounts “worthy and real”.

He said that many people “do not have a need to shop as they did before the pandemic”.

“Most of the employees are still working remotely, social occasions are somehow limited and a lot of people are shopping second-hand now due to the harsh financial situation they are going through,” Hindi added.

Other shoppers say they were misled by false advertisements.

Saba Salah, another shopper, said that most of the ads she saw at a mall offered “up to 70 per cent discount”, whereas the real discount did not exceed 30 per cent as the 70 per cent discount were on selected items.