Discovery Bank’s SpendTrend 2024 research found that e-commerce sites were more popular than in-store retailers on Black Friday.
The report looked at the spending behaviour of its clients during one of the busiest days for retailers and found that most of its customers were not interested in dealing with the huge lines and the pandemonium that ensues on Black Friday.
It further showed that Discovery Bank customers used Takealot as its most preferred e-commerce store during Black Friday.
The SpendTrend data noted that the average online card transaction value during Black Friday this year was R935.
South Africans only spent on average R513 on purchases in-store, according to the data.
The largest single transaction was R400,200 by a Discovery Bank customer.
The research indicated that South Africans between the age of 46-60 and higher demonstrated the greatest average spending, across both online and offline channels.
This highlighted the substantial spending power of mature consumers.
When it comes to retailers, Woolworths was a very popular venue for shoppers and was the top in-store retail merchant on Black Friday.
This was followed by Checkers, Pick n Pay and Dis-Chem.
While Takealot was the top online retailer for Discover Bank’s customers on Black Friday, other e-commerce sites that were popular include Checkers Sixty60, Amazon and One Day Only.
What were these people buying?
The report found that 25% of purchases online and in-store on Black Friday were food and beverage-related.
The next highest item was recreation, with 13% of all purchases being made on the day.
Discover Bank’s customers were also interested in home and transport items. The report found that 11% of purchases on Black Friday were on these items.
One person spent R1.7 million
According to payment Solutions company, Ozow, the Black Friday event itself saw a 13% increase in processing value from 2023, and this demonstrated a remarkable growth in digital payment adoption across SA.
Retailers who use Ozow reported a 96% increase in transaction volume for the week and showed that Black Friday is evolving into a longer shopping season.
Data showed that one individual spent a whopping R1.7 million across 21 transactions during the week of Black Friday.
The single largest purchase of the week was R472,150 and the most transactions for a single individual currently sits at 829.
The Ozow platform successfully handled more than 1,897,999 transactions, a 105% increase on the previous year, with an average transaction speed between 24-28 seconds.
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