Black Friday has grown in prominence in South Africa over the last few years and has fundamentally changed the way South Africans shop. While average spending in November has historically been higher than in the first 10 months of the year, it was always well below the traditional festive season trading numbers recorded in December. In the last six years, however, shoppers have increased spending in November and now spend 19% more in the eleventh month of the year than the average level in the first 10 months of the year, up from 11% between 2002 and 2016. This has had an impact on December trade, but consumers still spend significantly more in the last month of the year than the first 10, averaging 43% higher spend between 2017 and 2022, down from 45% higher expenditure in 2002 to 2016. December spending is still about 20% above November spend but this is down from 30% prior to 2017.
