Retail up 78%, betting & gambling up 152% and fintech up 240%
[Cape Town, South Africa] 29 November, 2021 – Leading African online payments platform Peach Payments has released its Black Friday figures for 2021. The Cape Town-based payment gateway saw an increase of over 103% in online shopping payment volume on 26 November compared to Black Friday 2020. Over the Black Friday to Cyber Monday period, Peach Payments processed over R250m by Monday afternoon.
“The big winner this Black Friday was, unsurprisingly, retail,” says Rahul Jain, co-founder of Peach Payments and recently appointed CEO.
Stats from Black Friday (26 November)
- Retail sales through Peach Payment’s gateway on Friday alone increased from R31.7m in 2020 to R56.7m (up 78%).
- Food & beverage increased 91% while fintech was a big winner with a 240% increase over 2020.
- Beauty online shopping sales increased 40%
- Travel & accommodation rose up 52%. This was a strong signal for the optimism in the economy only to be jeopardised by the recent Omicron variant and travel ban on several Southern African countries.
“When we take a closer look at retail,” continues Jain, “we start seeing interesting payment method patterns. Card payments far outstripped all other payment methods, demonstrating that South Africans are becoming more aware of the security benefits offered by cards over methods like EFT. If a consumer pays with a card, they are inherently protected against situations like non-delivery by the merchant due to features offered by the card schemes like Visa and Mastercard. Buy Now Pay Later solutions were also adopted by consumers in large numbers as they look to access alternative sources of credit,” he says.
Compared to 2020, the volume of card payments increased by 105%, reinforcing this point. Other payment methods like QR codes, Apple Pay and Mobicred are all also gaining traction in the digital commerce space. In 2020 in South Africa, the percentage of retail made up by online retail sales came to 2.8%, according to World Wide Worx, while Statista shows that in the US this hit a peak of 15.7%. This shows the massive upside available for digital commerce in South Africa and also across Africa.
“This year’s Black Friday record figures show positive signs for the future of ecommerce in South Africa and the rest of Africa,” states Jain. “Year on year growth during this popular shopping period will undoubtedly continue thanks to online payments becoming synonymous with a successful retail strategy.
“Africa has more than 60% of its population under 25 and these users are the future of commerce on the continent. They are mobile and digital first consumers who will leapfrog legacy commerce and physical retail by rapidly adopting digital commerce. This is very exciting for us as a business. We believe digital commerce is a US$1 trillion opportunity in Africa over the next decades and we’re still on Day 1,” he concludes.
“Africa has more than 60% of its population under 25 and these users are the future of commerce on the continent. They are mobile and digital first consumers who will leapfrog legacy commerce and physical retail by rapidly adopting digital commerce. This is very exciting for us as a business. We believe digital commerce is a US$1 trillion opportunity in Africa over the next decades and we’re still on Day 1,” he concludes.
