3 years ago
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ARTICLE AD BOX
PayFast’s BFCM 2022 statistics portal is live, allowing users to track spending by South African shoppers over this year’s Black Friday weekend and Cyber Monday.
Founded in 2007, PayFast has become one of South Africa’s biggest payment gateway providers, supporting numerous popular payment methods that can integrate with over 80 platforms and custom integrations.
It serves over 80,000 merchants with ecommerce, invoicing, event ticketing, and donation-accepting tools.
Prominent companies counted among these include Takealot, Superbalist, and Hollywood Bets.
Last year was a big Black Friday/Cyber Monday period for online merchants, with PayFast recording a 34% increase in transaction volumes and 30% in total purchase value compared to 2020.
It also saw 30% more shoppers buying online deals from PayFast-enabled merchants.
As a result of its large footprint, the payments provider has access to a wealth of online transaction information, some of which it shares in real time on its BFCM website.
The BCFM dashboard shows the value of the top 3 biggest single-basket transactions and the average basket value across the country.
In 2021, the biggest single transaction value recorded over the entire Black Friday weekend was R169,855, with the average basket size at R1,208.
As of 07:00 on 25 November 2022, the highest value of a single online transaction since 00:00 was R284,625, while the average basket value across the country stood at R1,365.
These numbers were remarkable, particularly considering there were still 18 hours to go on Black Friday alone.
This year, the tracking tool has a top 5 list of shoppers with the highest total spend, in addition to the top 5 with the highest number of transactions.
One shopper spent R397,217 across two transactions, while the largest number of transactions by a single shopper at the time of publication was six, with their total spending coming to R520.
PayFast also tracks the top payment methods used by shoppers, the top banks among customers that paid with EFT, and a per-province breakdown of transaction data.
Interestingly, the top payment method preferred by most shoppers this year was Instant EFTs, followed by Visa and Mastercard card payments, and Masterpass.
The vast majority of customers who paid for their orders using EFT bank with Capitec. FNB and Standard Bank clients account for the second and third-most EFT transactions.
Finally, PayFast can also track whether a mobile or desktop device is used to make a payment.
Mobile devices have accounted for nearly nine in every ten transactions so far.
The provinces with the highest number of transactions at the time of publication were Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, and the Northern Cape.
Many retailers and big-name brands are offering Black Friday deals in South Africa this month.
Banks are anticipating high overall sales volumes, despite consumer pressure due to higher inflation, as shoppers look to save money on essential goods.
With the high number of orders, some online retailers could experience delivery delays.
But Makro, one of the major retailers participating in Black Friday this year, has promised to maintain its regular 2–5 day delivery promise during Black Friday and the festive season.
Merlin Otto, vice president for pickup and delivery at Massmart, Makro’s parent company, said the retailer had “unlocked efficiencies” in the past 18 months that helped it consistently meet this delivery promise, even when demand increased.
“Integrating Wumdrop’s same-day delivery services and the ability to ship orders directly from our distribution centres have been game-changers for us,” Otto stated.
In addition, Massmart has appointed regional ecommerce managers responsible for driving ecommerce operations efficiency across the group.
“The impact of these improvements is perhaps best seen at Makro, where over 75% of all deliveries are made within 48 hours,” Massmart said.
Sister company Game has said it would also stick to its regular delivery time of 7–10 business days.
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