I don’t know about you, but I’m glad to see the back of those annoying Black Friday promotional texts and emails that kept blowing up my phone last week.

Cyber Monday was also full of messages out of the blue, but I think we’re in the clear now.

Whilst there were some great deals around, there were also a few retailers that could have skipped Black Friday completely.

I can live without the 5% saving on a pack of fancy bath salts, thanks. We’re still dealing with the aftermath of a water crisis.

This year also saw some record-breaking spending from South Africans.

Here’s BusinessTech has reported on data from BankservAfrica, and here are some of the standout stats from this year:

• The total number of transactions processed by BankservAfrica both in-store and online came to just over 7 million in 2019 – up 36% from 5,2 million in 2018.
• Black Friday year-on-year volume growth was up 400%.
• Instant EFT transactions were up 33% and 61% of online transactions came from mobile phones.

Perhaps the most impressive stat is the record-breaking ‘most expensive online transaction’ recorded this year: a hospitality purchase of R10 067 400 by an international company. That’s over R10 million spent online, by one company, in one purchase.

More stats at a glance via BusinessTech once more:

BusinessTech

The total spend nationwide amounted to R6 billion, which is a 106% increase from the R2,9 billion spent in 2018.

“It is clear that Black Friday and Cyber Monday are here to stay. South African shoppers have embraced the event and have planned well in advance this year. The buying patterns also show us that we are dealing with a more mature consumer,” said Peter Harvey, MD of the DPO Group – Southern Africa, which comprises of payments solutions PayGate, PayFast and SiD Secure EFT.

That means that either there are a lot of happy people out there, or a lot of people suffering from buyer’s remorse.

Here’s hoping it’s the former.

[source:businesstech]