Consumer Trends & Logistics: Black Friday is Dead, Long Live Temu, and Robots Take Over Delivery!
Black Friday is Changing (and Temu is Taking Over)
Forget the chaos of a single Black Friday rush. New exclusive research from the PwC Hungary e-commerce team shows that the shopping frenzy now lasts for weeks, stretching from late October into early December.
What the data tells us:
• Big Spending Ahead: Digitally active Hungarians (that’s 4.3 million people!) are expected to spend a record approximately € 454 – 571 million during this extended Black Friday period in 2025.
• Impulsive Shopping Wins: It turns out only 17% of people consciously plan for Black Friday; the majority (41%) are just waiting for sales and promotions to hit. This trend toward impulse buying is driven by frequent sales and, crucially, global online platforms.
• Temu’s Christmas Power: The Chinese marketplace Temu is a massive factor here. It has already attracted over 2.1 million Hungarian customers, and its impact on Christmas spending is huge.
◦ A staggering 1.1 million people have already ordered holiday gifts from Temu, with another 715,000 planning to do so.
◦ This translates to approximately € 70 million in Temu orders, already making up over 10% of the total planned online Christmas gift spending (which is forecast to exceed € 674.0 million overall).
◦ Previously, Temu shoppers spent an average of € 142.65.
In short: The draw of the traditional Black Friday is fading, but global platforms like Temu are ensuring that overall holiday spending is still set to hit record highs
Smart Logistics: Kifli’s Robot Warehouse Goes Live
Shifting from consumer trends to operational innovation, the Hungarian online grocer Kifli — part of the Rohlik Group — is piloting the future of order fulfillment at its new “smart warehouse” in Biatorbágy.
• A Futuristic Setup: This facility uses hundreds of box-shaped robots and AutoStore technology to manage about 80% of its inventory (15–16 thousand items) within 5,000 square meters.
• Hyper-Efficiency: The robotic system drastically cuts down on labor, saving warehouse pickers up to 15 kilometers of walking per day.
• Selling the Recipe: Kifli is now packaging this entire successful operational model—the software, the smart warehouse design, and the robotics—into a B2B brand called Veloq. They are essentially selling the “secret to success” to help others make online retail sustainable and profitable.
• High Targets: During the peak Christmas season, this new robot-powered center aims to fulfill 5,000 orders every single day.
This focus on advanced technology confirms the mission statement quoted from Nagyszeghi András, the head of the Biatorbágy Kifli center: “We are an IT company that trades, not traders who use IT”
Source: Forbes Checkout #2 (11 Nov 2025),