Even the challenges of increasing inflation and the prospects of continuing interest rate hikes could not dampen the enthusiasm of South African consumers for the extensive deals laid on by stores across the country over Black Friday weekend.
That’s according to Privesan Naidoo, Executive: Trading Products at Nedbank, who says that the bank saw a notable year-on-year increase in overall acquiring volumes on Friday 25 November (Black Friday).
“Nedbank acquiring volumes on Black Friday itself increased by a significant 38% from the levels we saw in 2021”, says Naidoo
According to Naidoo, Black Friday weekend 2022 also served to further embed the shift by South African consumers towards digital payments and online shopping. “Our data reveals a massive year-on-year increase of 88% in online transactions on Black Friday he explains, “whereas, the growth in physical purchases rising by 30% on Black Friday.”
Nedbank’s data reveal that, contactless payments saw growth between 2021 and 2022, by 39% on Black Friday. Considered over the two-year period from 2020 to 2022, these spikes are even more dramatic, going up 73% and 52% on each of the days. “These figures point to a growing preference for the convenience and safety of contactless payment methods like Nedbank Tap-and-Pay and Tap on Phone, as well as the numerous third-party contactless payment options,” Naidoo says.
Other notable trends evident from the data gleaned from Nedbank’s transactional platforms include the following:
- Spend levels by age group remained relatively similar, with consumers in their 20s, 30s and 40s accounting for the vast majority of transactions.
- The biggest increase in spend proportion was seen amongst consumers in their 30s, which increased from 21% of total spend across Nedbank channels in 2021 to 27% in 2022.
- The three most popular spend categories amongst consumers on Black Friday weekend were groceries and food, general shopping, and clothing, followed closely by fuel, alcohol, and furniture.
- In line with the above statistics, supermarkets emerged as the merchants that enjoyed the most support from consumers, with Pick n Pay, Checkers and Superspar taking the top three spots in terms of overall transaction values.
And it’s not just total transaction volumes that are up from 2021. Naidoo says that Nedbank’s analysis of spend patterns over Black Friday weekend points to an increase in average spend by consumers of 11% on both days.
Despite the significant increase in transaction volumes and values, real time payments (RTC) increased in excess of 100% this year. Nedbank is pleased to have not experienced any major downtime on any of its digital or point of sale payments platforms over Black Friday weekend,” Naidoo says, “which confirms the robustness of our payments infrastructure and validates the massive investment we have made in recent years into ensuring a reliable, value-adding Nedbank payments ecosystem.”
