South African shoppers went online on Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2018, spending more than they did last year. Meanwhile, in-store sales were down by as much as 10%.
BankservAfrica, Africa’s largest automated payments clearing house, processed a total of 581 189 online transactions over the period.
Black Friday proved to be more popular amongst South Africans with 404 594 online transactions, a 55% growth on 2017 (2017: 260 552) while for Cyber Monday this was 176 595, a 36% growth on 2017 (2017: 129 458).
The most expensive online transaction for Black Friday was over R6-million, while for Cyber Monday this reached R5-million.
South Africans also took to online shopping earlier for Black Friday peaking at 08:00 – 09:00; unlike Cyber Monday where there were later starts at 10:00 – 11:00.
The average online transactions per minute was 695 at peak for Black Friday. For the day, this was 281 per minute. Cyber Monday was less active at 277 transactions per minute during peak and averaging 125 per minute for the day.
“This year’s Black Friday and Cyber Monday figures surpassed 2017’s with more South Africans taking to online to do their transactions,” says Martin Grunewald, executive head: payments business at BankservAfrica. “The year-on-year growth certainly reflects the growing popularity of these major shopping days despite the tougher economy experienced.”
Figures from retail management platform Vend shows that in-store retail spending over the Black Friday shopping period this year dropped by 10% compared to 2017. Sales volumes also decreased by 2%.
This is despite discounting levels growing by 5% this year compared to 2017, and the average discount amount increasing by 3 percentage points. On Black Friday this year the average discount offered by retail stores was 20%.
However, Vend found that Black Friday continues to provide a significant spike in the retail calendar. When looking at the Black Friday shopping period (24 to 27 November), spending increased by 20% compared to the previous weeks in October and November.
In additoin, discounting levels spiked by 113% over Black Friday compared to previous weeks.
“While there have been reports that shoppers are still clamouring for Black Friday discounts, our data shows this year has fallen flat,” says Higor Torchia, EMEA country manager for Vend.
“Most stores now offer Black Friday deals through until Cyber Monday, both in-store and online. So it could be that consumers are doing more of their Black Friday shopping online, or they’re focussing on the deals from big-box retail stores.
“But our data shows that smaller, independent stores were also offering amazing discounts over the weekend – particularly fashion, and health and beauty stores, which boosted their discounting levels by around 500 percent. We’d love to see shoppers support local during these big sales events, alongside looking for deals with bigger stores.”
In the major centres sales growth was positive, particularly in Pretoria where sales jumped by 19% compared to previous weeks. In Cape Town sales increased by 13% and Johannesburg retailers saw a 10% increase.
Pretoria was the only main city to see year-on-year growth however, with a 20% increase.
Vend’s data also found a big increase in shoppers paying by credit card this year compared to last. This Black Friday, 53% of sales were taken in cash, and 45% were on credit card. Whereas in 2017 this figure was 58% in cash and 36% on credit.