Black Friday specials have been a favourite for many budget-savvy spenders looking for deals to cut costs. They’ve also been a great excuse to look for discounts when it comes to birthday and Christmas gifts or spoils one couldn’t buy during the year.
Payment service provider Peach Payments spent the weekend tracking Black Friday special purchase trends to see what South Africans are willing to pay for the items they lust after.
“Over the four-day weekend, we processed more than 2,69-million transactions to a total value of more than R1.86bn,” said Rahul Jain, CEO and cofounder.
The study revealed online retail grew by 35% in 2024, reaching R96bn, and makes up 8% of total retail sales. Growth has continued through 2025 at an annualised rate of 38%, far outpacing physical retail, which increased by only 2.5% in 2024 and 1.6% by mid-2025. This has led to a structural realignment of South African commerce, with digital platforms embedded in everyday consumer behaviour.
Here’s a look at three spending habits:
R1M TO SPARE
While tech is often assumed to be the biggest pull for Black Friday purchases, it was travel that saw the biggest purchase, with one item at R1,090,756.
VIS-À-VISA
At first place for transactions was Visa, followed by MasterCard in second and American Express third, the latter a growing favourite among South Africans. Payflex was the highest “buy now, pay later” service, in fifth place. Peach Payments saw a growth in the services by 753% in rand value from 2024.
WESTERN WALLET
Among big-spender provinces, the Western Cape took a massive 66.6% piece of the spenders’ pie. Gauteng came second with 32.7%, while the other provinces trailed behind KwaZulu-Natal at 0.62%.
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