Black Friday and Cyber Monday have come and gone with the usual fanfare and things were both good and bad for retailers at the weekend.

Data gathered by instant EFT payment provider, i-Pay, reveals that this Black Friday completed transactions increased by 700 percent year-on-year.

“At face value, e-tailers have experienced the highest volume of sales on record for Black Friday in South Africa. More significantly, the completed transactions on the day increased by close on 700% when compared to last year,” chief executive officer at i-Pay, Thomas Pays, said.

However, the average value of EFT transactions on the shopping spree day declined by 19 percent from 2017. The CEO says that this is indicative of the current economic landscape and that locals may have been more cautious when spending this Black Friday.

Now of course this only accounts for EFT transactions and excludes data from credit card purchases. That having been said, there was an issue regarding the processing of credit card transactions at Takealot on Friday.

“Being online is no longer good enough,” says Pays in conclusion. “You must empower merchants and consumers with digital payment solutions that are secure, do not require credit cards or customer registration, and are available no matter the traffic volumes. This year has shown the importance of this and made people aware of the need to use Instant EFT systems for their online purchases.”

[Image – CC 0 Pixabay]