On what seemed like a bleak day on this year’s Black Friday after two years of Covid-19, FNB revealed on Monday that its customers spent over R3-billion on purchases.
The bank said this was the highest Black Friday spending in the last four years. According to FNB, over R2.4-billion was spent in store and over R670-million on online shopping.
There was an increase in FNB virtual card spending, resulting in over R137-million in purchases compared to R36-million on Black Friday in 2021. FNB Card CEO Chris Labuschagne said in a market where consumers are seeing an increase in the cost of living, many were bound to take advantage of the Black Friday deals.
“As anticipated, the most popular spending categories, including travel and transportation, groceries, clothing, and entertainment, experienced a robust recovery. The increase in travel is especially encouraging given that many consumers were unable to travel in the past few years due to global travel limitations and it augurs well for the South African economy as the festive season approaches,” he said in a statement.
Head of business development at FNB Card Ashley Saffy said customers are increasingly choosing safer and more convenient payment methods, such as using their virtual cards for online spending and doing contactless card and device transactions for in-store purchases.
“The value of online spend increased by 31% compared to the same period last year, while in-store spend increased by 18%. It’s also encouraging to see that contactless payments increased by 36% compared to last year’s Black Friday, demonstrating that customers are becoming more aware of convenient and safer payment methods, whether they shop in-store or online,” she added.
FNB said consumers need to keep in mind that the upcoming festive season is long and should therefore spend wisely. FNB has urged customers to use their virtual cards for safer online transactions and to approve online purchases through the FNB app.
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