23 million clients are shopping smarter, more strategic, and digitally this Black Friday.
South Africa, 02 December 2024: Capitec, South Africa's leading digital bank and winner of the 2024 'Coolest Bank' award, has revealed consumer spending trends for the 2024 Black Friday weekend, reflecting significant shifts in consumer spending and digital adoption. The bank recorded a 27% year-on-year increase in client spending across Friday and Saturday, with clients spending R25.45 billion – enough to buy over 7.2 million tickets to the Springboks vs All Blacks game at DHL Stadium and fill it 132 times over.
Francois Viviers, Group Executive: Marketing and Communications at Capitec, says, “Our transaction data points to South Africans’ Black Friday shopping extending over the weekend, not just Friday. There's also a clear trend of more South Africans shifting from cash to card and from in-store to online shopping. Additionally, we see a growing focus on shopping for essentials rather than luxury items. Considering our client base that covers a third of our country’s population, this behaviour reflects a broader national trend of wiser and more strategic financial decisions.”
Capitec says its infrastructure demonstrated exceptional resilience during peak weekend shopping, handling high digital transaction volumes at scale without fail. The leading digital bank facilitated close to 500 transactions per second on Black Friday and close to 600 transactions on Saturday morning, indicating a preference for early morning weekend deal-hunting.
Capitec says the weekend saw several significant purchases, with the largest single-card purchases made in the following essential categories:
The leading digital bank says grocery retailers collectively recorded R1.98 billion in spending. Shoprite maintained its position as the leading retailer, processing 892 408 Capitec Card payments, and Clicks emerged as the dominant pharmacy retailer, with over 304 000 payments.
Takealot.com led online retail with over 52 000 orders, while Shein established itself as the preferred online fashion destination with 13 666 transactions. Uber dominated ride-hailing services, facilitating 154 365 rides, while lottery purchases increased significantly with over 560 000 purchases across the two days.
The country’s shift towards digital payments continues to grow, with Capitec clients conducting 44 million digital transactions totalling R19.82 billion. The value of online card payments rose by over 38%.
Capitec Pay, the bank's innovative digital payment solution that allows clients to shop online using only their cell phone number and Capitec App, also saw impressive growth over the weekend, with 1.7 million transactions over the two days.
“Capitec Pay’s growth is a strong signal of South Africans’ trust in digital and contactless payments and the Capitec Brand. With security becoming a key concern for online shoppers, the safety and ease offered by Capitec Pay resonates with our clients, particularly during high-volume shopping periods like Black Friday,” adds Viviers.
Capitec says its banking app helped clients manage their spending over the Black Friday weekend. The platform saw 27 million app logins on Black Friday alone – 51% more than the previous year.
“All transactions made using Capitec cards, online, and through our app are automatically categorised, allowing clients to track and manage their spending on transport, accommodation, groceries, and more.”
Viviers concludes, "Our mission, as we head into the festive season, is to enable more South Africans to bank and live better. We aim to support our clients, who are finding ways to be resourceful by looking for real value and making calculated financial decisions through our rewards programmes, secure digital payment solutions, and budgeting tools."
