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August 22, 2025It’s that time of the year again. The holiday season is around the corner, and your inventory management team already hates to see November coming.
Black Friday 2025 is something South Africans can look forward to, as it offers a chance to strike a few specials and save on those items they’ve been putting off. While many may view Black Friday as strictly chaotic, it’s time for merchants to see it as an opportunity to boost sales, increase brand awareness, and clear out excess or older stock.
In South Africa, Black Friday 2025 falls on 28 November 2025. Many retailers will extend deals across the full ‘Black November’ shopping period.
Preparation is key to getting the most out of Black Friday (and Cyber Monday), which is why today’s article exists. As a leading payment gateway provider, we know just how essential looking at the latest trends, statistics, and payment methods are.
So stick around to find out more and also understand how we, at Netcash, can help you overcome common bottlenecks during Black Friday.
Turn Black Friday chaos into your biggest sales weekend with Netcash as your payment partner.
South Africa’s Black Friday 2025 landscape
South Africans still look forward to Black Friday each year. While the initial frenzy might have lulled a little, interest still remains strong among consumers. Many citizens plan their purchases around the event to take advantage of deals, particularly on groceries, clothing, and appliances.
However, there’ve been many shifts throughout the years, not only in terms of consumer habits, but also in how Black Friday unfolds in general. Keeping up and adapting to the latest trends is the only way to remain relevant and score big during these events.
Here is what to expect from this year’s Black Friday in South Africa:
- Omnichannel sales will be critical – You can reach more customers and be more successful by selling both online and in-store.
- Promotions will spread beyond one day – Black Friday offers are now spread across weeks or months, creating the prolonged “Black November” shopping season (more on this below).
- eCommerce and mobile will dominate – Online transactions made up more than half of all Black Friday sales in 2024, so merchants should ensure mobile-optimised stores and fast checkout flows.
- Diversified payment options are a must – BNPL, digital wallets, QR payments, and virtual cards saw steep increases in recent years. Merchants lacking flexible payment gateways risk losing sales due to abandoned carts.
- Most consumers are buying electronics and essentials – Expect this year to be no different. South African shoppers are mainly buying a mix of electronics, fashion, groceries, and home essentials.
Black Friday in South Africa: Key consumer trends and stats
Whether you’re running an online shop or a brick-and-mortar store, these insights into trends and statistics can help you plan better for the next BFCM. In South Africa, the most popular Black Friday specials are on electronics, clothing, groceries, and home appliances — with many shoppers planning their purchases around these categories.
1. It’s no longer just Black Friday, it’s Black November
Gone are the days when your parents and grandparents used to count down to the hour and wake up before sunrise to queue up at a retailer or supermarket. Many eCommerce and traditional stores started expanding their Black Friday offerings to the weekend, then a week, and eventually the entire month of November.
Embracing “Black November” means you can extend deals throughout the month, manage crowds effectively, and offer more flexibility. Sales teams, managers, and accountants could finally start to breathe a sigh of relief.
2. Online shopping is quickly overtaking the space
Why leave the comfort of your home when you can shop all you want online and avoid the crowds? It’s a win-win for everyone. Consumers can buy from international stores, place orders at any time of day, and pay conveniently without feeling rushed.
A 2024 analysis by Discovery Bank’s SpendTrend uncovered that eCommerce platforms gained greater popularity compared to physical stores during Black Friday. This indicates that merchants who hone their marketing efforts towards BFCM can reap significant rewards.
3. The great shift in consumer behaviour
Back in the day, BF used to be all about big-ticket items and intense mall rushes. Think, people barging into Game for a new fridge or flat-screen TV. While these types of sales are still happening today, Black Friday has evolved to include way more products.
This means smaller everyday items are now also slapped with “Something percent off” or “Buy One Get One Free” labels. With the current tough economy, it makes sense for the average shopper to plan their grocery runs, eCommerce subscriptions, or clothing shopping sprees around BFCM.
4. Adapt to new payment methods to secure sales
Offering more flexible online payment options is the key to retaining customers and securing sales. Modern options that appeal to today’s shoppers, such as “Buy Now Pay Later” or QR scans, ensure smooth checkout experiences, thereby increasing customer satisfaction.
These smart methods also help your customers stretch their budgets and purchase using their preferred, secure payment option.
6. Statistics to back up BF numbers
Recent stats can reveal a lot about how BF is performing in South Africa, and thus how successful you could be in terms of sales and attraction.
Let’s look at some examples of Black Friday eCommerce stats:
- Peach Payments saw an increase of 113% in sales for leisure and entertainment over a four-day period.
- Capitec Bank reported R25 billion+ in spending by its customers on Black Friday, with a significant shift towards online and card transactions.
- FNB recorded a 15% increase in BF spending by its cardholders since 2020.
- Discovery Bank reported a 150% surge in online spending compared to the typical last Friday of the month.
Preferred payment methods in 2025
If there’s one thing you’d want to get right during the BFCM frenzy, it would be to offer your customers their preferred payment method. Now you might be thinking, “There are hundreds of payment solutions out there, so which ones are even worth offering?”.
This is when you consider how most shoppers are paying for deals. Here’s a quick glance at the most preferred payment methods for South African consumers during BF.
|
Payment Method |
Estimated Share of Transactions |
|
Credit & Debit Cards (Visa, Mastercard, AmEx) |
~84 % |
|
Instant EFT (CapitecPay, Ozow) |
~12–14 % |
|
Buy Now, Pay Later (Payflex, RCS, PayJustNow) |
~2–3 % |
|
Loyalty‑based payments (eBucks, Discovery Miles) |
~1–2 % |
|
QR‑Code & Mobile Wallets (Zapper, SnapScan) |
~1–2 % |
|
Cryptocurrency & Other |
< 1 % |
Key takeaways
- Buy Now Pay Later solutions are growing fast: BNPL providers like PayJustNow and Payflex are gaining strong popularity, especially among younger consumers. These options allow shoppers to spread costs among several weeks or months, enabling them to tackle large-ticket items, which is kinder to their budget plans.
- Card-based payments remain king: While most online shoppers are still making card payments, we are seeing a slight dip in recent years as other flexible options become popular. In 2022, about 93% of payments were made by card and dropped to 87% in 2023, and a further 3% in 2024.
- Mobile wallets and QR payments are gaining popularity: Options like Zapper, SnapScan, and PayFast are all on the rise in-store and online during Black Friday sales. They are quick, easy, and already a familiar and trusted payment method in the South African market.
Black Friday payment tips
Want to ditch abandoned carts and embrace a high sales conversion? Good, because you’re going to need all the tips you can get to convert a curious consumer into a paying customer.
Did you know that attempted retail scams rise by more than 600% during Black Friday? Strengthening security while keeping checkout simple is critical to avoid chargebacks and fraud.
- Offer multiple, flexible payment options: One of the most foolproof ways to maximise sales is to provide multiple payment options. From BNPL to Instant EFTs and QR payments, giving customers a flexible way to pay increases trust and confidence in your business. Netcash offers various payment solutions, including debit order collections, which can be helpful for businesses that offer subscriptions or recurring payments.
- Ensure your payment gateway is scalable: Choose a payment gateway that can scale with increased sales. This means it has high uptime and strong support for BF traffic surges.
- Prioritise security and fraud prevention: Black Friday triggers more than a 600% rise in attempted retail cyber scams. This means you need to tighten up your security. Use 3D Secure and fraud-detection tools to prevent costly chargebacks. You should monitor any suspicious transactions, like multiple card attempts or unusually high volume orders. Then, display trust signals to put shoppers at ease, such as SSL badges and secure payment icons.
- Offer a fast and simple checkout: Ensure your checkout process is as streamlined as possible, with the least number of steps. A one-click checkout or guest checkout option can be effective in reducing cart abandonment. Lastly, accepted payment methods should be clearly displayed early on, so customers know what payment types to prepare for.
Transform high traffic into high revenue with a payment gateway built for peak season.
How Netcash helps during BFCM
It’s not even the 1st of November yet, and it’s already a battleground for price wars. Cue the aggressive marketing, endless inquiries, and unplanned website crashes. Luckily, you don’t have to manage all these challenges alone. We’re here to make Black Friday and Cyber Monday easier for you.
Netcash’s role
We understand the potential challenges online businesses can face and can thus help you prepare for Black Friday. By implementing certain strategies, mitigating risks, and maximizing success, it becomes easier to attain.
Netcash is a payment solution provider that helps with online payments, debit orders, and provides resources to prepare for and optimise sales during BFCM. You can use our industry-leading services to process payments for Black Friday deals and manage increased sales volume.
Netcash offers tips on topics such as optimizing your online store, managing stock, and creating effective marketing strategies for Black Friday.
Here are some common pain points and how Netcash can help you overcome them for the smoothest Black Friday yet:
1. Slow and frustrating checkout
As a merchant, you know that the checkout process can either make or break your Black Friday. Providing a smooth and lightning-fast checkout? Customer satisfaction will skyrocket, and they’ll come back for more.
Providing a slow and frustrating payment process is the quickest route to upsetting and losing customers. Hello abandoned carts and bad reviews.
How Netcash helps:
- Fast and secure payment gateways: We offer seamless payment integrations to reduce checkout steps and cart abandonment, including card payments, instant EFT, and QR codes.
- Multiple payment solutions: Customers can pay the way they prefer, whether by credit cards or mobile payments, making checkout faster.
- Optimised checkout: Netcash’s hosted checkout pages are optimised for speed, reliability, and mobile-friendliness.
2. Technical issues
Website overload has always been one of the biggest hurdles for merchants during BFCM sales. The sudden influx of traffic can quickly overwhelm servers, which then leads to website crashes, slower loading times, and poor customer experience.
How Netcash helps:
- Cloud-based payment gateway: Netcash’s infrastructure is built for eCommerce, handling high transaction volumes with no downtime even during peak Black Friday surges.
3. Inaccurate inventory management
Keeping track of inventory accurately is vital to avoid running out of stock quickly or overselling popular items. You’re left having to deal with frustrated customers who might end up spending their cash elsewhere.
How Netcash helps:
- Integrates with eCommerce platforms: Netcash seamlessly integrates with popular eCommerce platforms, including WooCommerce, Magento, and Shopify, to provide real-time updates on stock levels during transactions.
- Automated payment confirmations: Receive instant confirmation on paid orders to reduce errors and overselling.
4. Logistical setbacks
Order processing and fulfilment can quickly become a headache if not managed properly. Processing large volumes of orders inaccurately or inefficiently leads to unnecessary and costly delays and errors. And, you’re once again left with irritated customers who are furious as to why their orders haven’t arrived yet.
How Netcash helps:
- Automated invoicing: Netcash syncs with accounting software to keep payment records and invoices updated in real-time, streamlining the fulfillment process.
- Instant payment confirmation: Orders are released once payment is verified, which speeds up order processing.
5. Competitive pricing
Black Friday is highly competitive, and the intense price wars often force businesses to offer steep discounts, potentially impacting their profit margins.
How Netcash helps:
- Low transaction fees: Netcash offers cost-effective payment solutions, allowing businesses to retain more profit and have more attractive pricing.
- Promotional tools: You can run QR-based promotions or voucher campaigns via Zapper, through Netcash.
6. Bad customer experience
What do you get when you combine out-of-stock items with delayed deliveries? One angry customer who may not return to your business ever again. And the more these occur, the more angry customers you have.
The key is to effectively manage expectations regarding realistic shipping times, product availability, and customer support around BF events. If you can’t live up to these expectations, rather communicate this as anything less will land you in hot water. It’s the reason why so many businesses experience higher return rates during these times, which are costly and time-consuming to manage.
How Netcash helps:
- Multiple payment methods: Since Netcash supports cards, EFTs, and QR code/Scan-to-Pay payments, customers appreciate the flexibility.
- Easy refunds and payment reversals: We ensure a smooth refund process to build customer trust.
7. Cybersecurity threats
We’ve already touched on how cybersecurity risks and threats increase during the Black Friday period. It’s a busy time, and business owners or managers have less time to monitor the system, making them vulnerable to attacks, like ransomware. It can also leave sensitive customer data and payment information vulnerable to financial abuse.
How Netcash helps:
- PCI-DSS Level 1 Compliance: Netcash adheres to strict global security standards for online transactions.
- Tokenization and encryption: These are additional measures to safeguard sensitive customer data during transactions.
- 3D Secure & Fraud Prevention: These measures can help protect businesses and customers against fraud and chargebacks.
Black Friday vs Cyber Monday in South Africa
Cyber Monday follows Black Friday and is focused mainly on online sales. While Black Friday often drives a mix of in-store and online shopping, Cyber Monday deals are exclusively digital. In South Africa, many retailers merge the two into extended ‘Black November’ promotions, but it’s still worth noting the extra surge in online spending on Cyber Monday.
Final Word on Black Friday 2025 trends in South Africa
Black Friday is shaping up to be bigger and smarter than ever. Thanks to evolving payments trends, tech-driven shopping habits, and rising mobile transactions, it’s easy to see why.
Businesses that are well prepared will have an edge over the rest. Whether you’re offering flexible payment options, ensuring fast checkout, or staying ahead of cybersecurity risks, you’re already a step ahead. The key is to create a seamless, safe, and rewarding experience for your customers, and the sales will follow.
Ready to turn these insights into action? Reach out to the Netcash team to make this year’s Black Friday the most profitable one yet!
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Author:
Candice Sergeant
Product Manager
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Candice Sergeant is a digital dynamo at Netcash, where she’s on a mission to help South African businesses level up their online game. As an eCommerce Product Owner, she’s got her finger on the pulse of the latest trends and technologies, constantly seeking out ways to boost sales and streamline operations. With a knack for spotting opportunities and a passion for innovation, Candice is your go-to guide for taking your e-commerce business to the next level.
