Survey may show what consumers are planning to buy this Black Friday and how they’ll pay for it

The Black Friday craziness is back, and if you are like most South Africans you are questioning what you will buy this year and how much you will spend.

A new survey of more than 1600 customers conducted this month by Payflex has some great insights on what customers are thinking this Black Friday season.

The survey found that just over 90% of South African buy now, pay later (BNPL) customers plan to spend more online this festive season than last year, while 78% plan to shop on Black Friday.

“Our customer base has more than doubled since 2021 to over 450 000 customers so we are expecting Black Friday Payflex spend to more than double this year,” says Paul Behrmann, the CEO of the company.

“South Africans are becoming more comfortable with using BNPL as a budget tool, shunning expensive credit to pay for purchases in interest-free instalments instead.”

The survey also found that online sales are growing.

“Online sales continue to grow strongly, with 92% of customers planning to shop only or mostly online on Black Friday,” it found.

THE FESTIVE SEASON

The survey revealed that almost half of customers surveyed (46%) have budgeted to spend up to R5 000 on holiday gifts this year, with 20% planning to spend between R5 000 and R10 000 on gifts.

A MARKETING TRICK

According to the survey, about 28% of customers feel that Black Friday offers specials that cannot be matched or found at other times in the year.

The survey also found sceptics, with 18% of those surveyed saying that Black Friday was just a marketing trick. They argued that the same deals or even better savings can be found at other times of the year.

WHAT ARE PEOPLE LOOKING TO BUY?

So what are South Africans looking to buy this Black Friday?

The survey found that 29% of those surveyed were looking into fashion.

When it came to electronics, 27% of those who took the survey were interested in something electronic or an appliance.

Children’s products were also a particularly popular spend category, with 11% of those surveyed interested in something for their children.

HAVE YOUR SAY