With the easing of lockdown restrictions, Absa has witnessed a 231% increase in contactless card volumes (tap to pay) across debit and credit cards this year.
With Black Friday once again falling over the pandemic period, consumer and retailer behaviour has been significantly altered, signaling a shift in how people transact as one of South Africa’s busiest shopping periods approaches.
This year, overall in-store contactless card volumes for debit and credit cards surged by 231%, and transactional value rose by 180%.
“Following record increases in e-commerce levels in 2020, Absa has noted drastic payment shifts this year. New payment alternatives including QR Payments and digital tap to pay options such as Apple Pay, Garmin Pay and FitBit Pay are also making a mark,” says Cowyk Fox, managing executive: everyday banking at Absa Retail and Business Bank.
“Since the introduction of more digital contactless wallet options, customers are increasingly enrolling their Absa debit and credit cards to their compatible smart phone, wearable or tablet to enable simple and convenient tap to pay in-store transactions. As lockdown restrictions ease, more people are opting to make payments without carrying a physical card or touching a PoS terminal.”
As one of the first South African banks to offer Apple Pay, more than 77% of Absa’s overall digital contactless wallet payment volumes were performed via Apple Pay since its launch in March 2021. “We are pleased with the uptake of these options – the first-mover advantage has meant that 73% of these customers used Apple Pay, with Apple Pay transactional values accounting for a significant 79% of all our digital contactless payment values in 2021,” says Fox.
With the value of e-commerce transactions stabilising to a 35% increase, from last year’s unprecedented growth, along with the relaxing of lockdown restrictions and the ever-progressing vaccine rollout, Absa expects these trends to intensify over Black Friday, as suggested by the strong contactless payment growth.
“The growing trend of retailers offering specials throughout November, and not just on Black Friday, will once again be reflected in greater activity over the month, and less so on 26 November,” Fox says. “This trend continues from last year, when the top spending day in 2020 was not Black Friday as in previous years, but rather the day before Lockdown level five commenced with over R1.2bn spent on the day (using Absa-issued cards). In fact, Black Friday spend in 2020 decreased by 31,2% year-on-year.”