The South African banking industry saw modest growth in e-commerce sales during the Black Friday shopping period.
According to trends tracked by online payment platforms and bank customers’ card-not-present transactions, e-commerce during this year’s bargain-hunting weekend was relatively higher than in 2023.
BankservAfrica, which tracked shopping payment levels across its local bank members during the Black Friday weekend, says its online card authentication service showed overall online shopping volumes were up by 27% compared to the previous day, and 6% higher compared to Black Friday 2023.
As the largest automated payments clearing house in Africa, BankservAfrica clears and processes billions of low-value card, ATM, EFT and card-not-present transactions annually across its banking ecosystem.
BankservAfrica measured the 24-hour results by comparing transaction volumes to a typical shopping day, Thursday, 28 November – the day before Black Friday – against Black Friday 2023.
“Our data points to several factors that could have influenced this year’s shopping. The higher daily volumes suggest Black Friday remains a favourite. However, these could have also been influenced by the big day falling on or just after pay day, which would have boosted activity as shoppers made the most of the month-end specials,” says Solly Bellingan, head of marketing at BankservAfrica.
“At the same time, with merchants running promotions throughout November, more consumers may have opted to spread their Black Friday purchases across the month. Additionally, keen price-watchers could have found markdowns less than impressive.”
The annual comparison of in-store and online shopping reveals that both remain popular among South African shoppers, he adds.
While in-store promotions still attract significant crowds, online merchants have steadily raised their game − with features like seamless payments, enticing promotions, improved delivery services and the entry of new online retailers giving consumers more options when it comes to finding the best deals, Bellingan states.
BankservAfrica’s data shows that while midnight deals sparked some interest, online shopping activity gained momentum from 6am on Black Friday. Online activity peaked between 9am and 10am, and held high throughout the day, compared to a typical shopping day.
The rush to get last-minute deals was evident in the last hour, when volumes went up by 75% compared to the previous day, but showed a modest 6% growth compared to Black Friday 2023. Overall, the value of online transactions increased by 21% year-on-year, showing markedly higher spend than in-store.
“As anticipated amid the improving economic conditions and rising consumer optimism, this year’s Black Friday, now in its 10th year in South Africa, delivered daily. However, annual growth was modest, suggesting the Black Friday shopping frenzy over recent years has been steady, but lacked the same intensity levels observed in earlier years,” Bellingan comments.
Payment service provider Peach Payments says consumer activity bounced back this November, with its data analytics platform showing 38% overall growth in the rand value of payments processed by its merchant partners on Black Friday.
It adds that the Black Friday/Cyber Monday weekend showed similar positive sentiment, up 37% over last year.
Rahul Jain, CEO and co-founder of Peach Payments, explains: “This Black Friday was a good day for the e-commerce industry as a whole, in a tough year, and we have surpassed expectations.
“Despite the economic pressures, the sheer volume of online payments South Africa’s economy supports is impressive. Over the four-day weekend, we processed more than 1.4 million transactions, to a total value of more than R1.19 billion.”
The largest individual transaction Peach Payments processed over the weekend was for R441 000, in the travel and tourism industry.
Jain points out that while the vast majority of these transactions were completed through card payments, buy-now-pay-later payments processed by Peach Payments over the weekend grew by 198% in rand value from 2023.
Digital shift
Discovery Bank says its online tracker reveals total card transactions made by its clientele on Black Friday rose 37% from 2023, with online purchases increasing by 46%. Compared to a typical last Friday of the month, total in-store spending increased by 50%, while total online spending surged by over 150%.
“The average online basket size (R949) was almost double that of in-store (R509), showing a preference for big-ticket items online. The online share of total spend has increased slightly, now accounting for 30% of all purchases. Takealot dominated online sales, with international players like Temu and Shein experiencing strong growth,” notes Discovery Bank.
First National Bank (FNB) says total customer transactions exceeded last year’s highest spend peak, going over R3.2 billion in purchases on Black Friday this year.
In line with the anticipated significant shift towards digital payments, the bank says it saw a strong preference for safer and more convenient payments, with virtual card, online spend and digital wallets spend increasing significantly from prior years.
Senzo Nsibande, CEO of FNB Card, says: “Over Black Friday weekend, 18% of all in-store transactions were made via digital wallets, which increased by 43% year-on-year. Online spend also performed well, with 23% of all spend online.
“For credit cards specifically, 42% of customer spend was online, which has increased by 17% since the prior year. Interestingly, one of our top transactions recorded on Black Friday was for a purchase made at Cartier Boutique, for R780 000.”
“E-commerce saw a 37% increase in transaction values and 76% increase in transaction volumes, while brick-and-mortar transactions saw a 10% increase in values and 19% in volumes. Tourism (37%), variety goods (26%) and apparel (24%) saw the strongest year-on-year growth on Black Friday,” notes Nsibande.
The leading merchants that drove spend activity for retail customers on the day included Takealot, Checkers Sixty60 and Uber for online purchases, and Checkers, Shoprite and Spar for in-store purchases, he adds.
Chris Wood, managing executive for product at Absa Relationship Banking, points out that Absa’s data suggests consumers are increasingly embracing the convenience, variety and efficiency of online shopping.
“Over the Black Friday weekend, e-commerce transactions increased by 25% year-on-year among Absa cardholders, reinforcing a growing comfort for online transactions. However, when e-commerce transactions are analysed more broadly during this period and not only among Absa cardholders, online spending was not as strong as initially anticipated.
“This is likely the result of the fact that the significant one-day-only specials that were offered online by some online retailers in previous years, may not have been quite as competitive and are increasingly being spread out over the month of November (Black November).
“In addition, there has been increased competition in the online space, with new global competitors entering the market, providing consumers with more choice.”
From a payment acceptance perspective, the average value of online transactions over the period was R752, which is in line with the upward trend experienced over the past two years.
With consumers still experiencing financial pressure in many cases, essentials such retail, food and groceries were prioritised, Wood concludes.
Share