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(File: Gallo Images, Esa Alexander)
Gallo Image Buyers During a Previous Black Friday
- Black Friday sales fell dramatically in South Africa in 2020, initial figures show.
- Online transactions increased by more than 60%, but that was not enough to make up for the drop in store sales.
- Physical retailers saw about two million fewer transactions than during Black Friday 2019.
- For more stories, visit www.BusinessInsider.co.za.
Black Friday 2020 was a flop for South African retailers, early statistics show, with a huge decline in in-store sales.
Retailers were expecting reduced sales compared to 2019 as shoppers avoided shopping malls and stores for fear of coronavirus infection and lack of money in their pockets thanks to the economic impact of the virus and the associated lockdown.
But the size of the drop is staggering and may indicate more trouble than anticipated.
Card purchases in stores on November 27 totaled just under five million, said clearinghouse BankServAfrica on Saturday morning. That’s a 30% decrease compared to 2019.
Online transactions, by contrast, rose more than 60%, but started from a low base, reaching just under 870,000 sales in total.
That represents about 300,000 additional sales online, compared to two million fewer sales in physical stores.
Although mall and store owners did their best to assure customers that they would be safe, shopping malls were quiet on Fridays, some more than on a normal shopping day.
Traditionally physical retail chains sought to encourage online shopping, through newly revamped channels during the lockdown. But they seemed to fail to generate the kind of buzz that stores rely on, where visitors drawn in by some headline deals in previous years could be swayed to buy other things as well.
There were also declines in other countries, with figures from Barclaycard, Britain’s largest credit card company, showing an overall drop of around 10% in total transactions, with the value of payments even lower.
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