Press release: Local payments provider sees record Black Friday sales

[Cape Town, South Africa] 29 November, 2021 - Leading African online payments platform Peach Payments has released its Black Friday figures for 2021. The Cape Town-based payment gateway saw an increase of over 103% in online shopping payment volume on 26 November compared to Black Friday 2020. Over the Black Friday to Cyber Monday period, Peach Payments processed over R250m by Monday afternoon. 

"The big winner this Black Friday was, unsurprisingly, retail," says Rahul Jain, co-founder of Peach Payments and recently appointed CEO.

 “When we take a closer look at retail,” continues Jain, “we start seeing interesting payment method patterns. Card payments far outstripped all other payment methods, demonstrating that South Africans are becoming more aware of the security benefits offered by cards over methods like EFT. If a consumer pays with a card, they are inherently protected against situations like non-delivery by the merchant due to features offered by the card schemes like Visa and Mastercard. Buy Now Pay Later solutions were also adopted by consumers in large numbers as they look to access alternative sources of credit,” he says.

 

 

Compared to 2020, the volume of card payments increased by 105%, reinforcing this point. Other payment methods like QR codes, Apple Pay and Mobicred are all also gaining traction in the digital commerce space. In 2020 in South Africa, the percentage of retail made up by online retail sales came to 2.8%, according to World Wide Worx, while Statista shows that in the US this hit a peak of 15.7%. This shows the massive upside available for digital commerce in South Africa and also across Africa.

“This year’s Black Friday record figures show positive signs for the future of ecommerce in South Africa and the rest of Africa,” states Jain. “Year on year growth during this popular shopping period will undoubtedly continue thanks to online payments becoming synonymous with a successful retail strategy. 
“Africa has more than 60% of its population under 25 and these users are the future of commerce on the continent. They are mobile and digital first consumers who will leapfrog legacy commerce and physical retail by rapidly adopting digital commerce. This is very exciting for us as a business. We believe digital commerce is a US$1 trillion opportunity in Africa over the next decades and we’re still on Day 1,” he concludes.