First National Bank has revealed that Black Friday spending increased by 19% year-on-year, with transactions worth over R2 billion processed on its Speedpoints. The bank’s card holders made purchases in excess of R2.5 billion on Black Friday, an increase of 15% compared with 2020.
FNB CEO, Jacques Celliers says: "Our stats also show heightened shopping activity beyond Black Friday, with transactions for the month of November up 25% compared with the same month in 2020. It’s exciting to see consumers and businesses actively taking part in economic activity despite the challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic. With more shopping activity expected during Cyber Monday, we encourage our customers to continue using their eBucks to stretch their wallets as they have done over the last 20 years."
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 on 2020 but on par with volumes processed in 2019. In the last three 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."
CEO of FNB Card, Chris Labuschagne 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."
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