Data shows that 2 out of 3 South African consumers participated in Black Friday shopping at some point, according to Isana Cordier, sector head for consumer goods and services, corporate and investment banking at ABSA.

ABSA card data indicates that, on average, every last Friday of the month consumers spend about 55% of purchases on groceries.

On Black Friday, however, this changes and durable goods make up about 20% of purchases.

"It, therefore, seems that consumers are holding back spending on those durable items to buy them on Black Friday. South Africans especially like to spend on electronics on Black Friday," Cordier said at a recent consumer insights event hosted by ABSA in Cape Town.

Black Friday has become the biggest spending day of the year in the SA retail sector with more than R3bn spent on that day last year.

Another interesting trend for her is that, whereas Black Friday shopping in SA was initially mostly centred around Gauteng and the Western Cape, the "frenzy" has started to spread to other provinces as well.

For instance, the Eastern Cape now makes up about 7.2% of Black Friday spending in SA, KwaZulu-Natal 14.2% and the Free State 4.1%. Gauteng still accounts for 37% of spending in SA on Black Friday.

Fin24 reported last year that retail sales over the Black Friday and Cyber Monday period most likely "saved" the South African economy in November, according to the BankservAfrica Economic Transaction Index (BETI).

On Black Friday and Cyber Monday, a total of 5.2 million card transactions were recorded.

More significantly, according to the BETI report, there was 55% growth in online sales for Black Friday and 36.4% for Cyber Monday.

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