Black Friday spending up 19%

FNB has revealed that Black Friday spending has increased by 19% year-on-year, with transactions worth over R2-billion processed on its Speedpoints, across all credit cards.

At the same time, FNB cardholders made more than R2.5-billion in purchases on Black Friday, an increase of 15% over 2020.

“Our stats also show heightened shopping activity beyond Black Friday, with transactions for the month of November up 25% compared to the same month in 2020,” says FNB CEO Jacques Celliers. “It’s exciting to see consumers and businesses actively taking part in economic activity despite the challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic. We encourage our customers to (use) their eBucks to stretch their wallets as they have done over the last 20 years. Our customers can also save by taking advantage of the discounted deals on our eBucks Shop and Connect Devices.”

CEO of FNB merchant services Thokozani Dlamini says: “It is encouraging to see many of our merchants embracing new ways of shopping and accepting payments to maximise opportunities such as Black Friday. During this year’s Black Friday, we recorded a peak of 490 transactions per second, an improvement compared to 2020 but on par with volumes processed in 2019. In the last 3 years, Black Friday has been the biggest shopping day of the year in South Africa, and we expect this trend to continue considering the effort that retailers continue to make to attract willing buyers.”

Chris Labuschagne, CEO of FNB Card, says: “The recovery in spending is a sign that households are gradually finding their feet in what has been a difficult 18 months due to Covid-19 and the lockdown. We’re also delighted to see many of our customers using our wide range of convenient and safer payment alternatives, such as Virtual Cards and Apple Pay. 

“While Black Friday is usually the peak shopping period, Cyber Monday has been equally popular in recent years. As a result, we expect to see customers taking advantage of any specials on tech or digital products.”