Payment service provider Peach Payments late Friday said it has tracked a Black Friday-linked transaction worth R1.09-million, which it said was spent in the travel and tourism sector.

“Peach Payments has been tracking Black Friday digital transactions data in real time throughout the day on its dashboard and has already experienced more than 80% growth over 2024’s whole [Black Friday] weekend in just today’s sales,” Peach Payments said in a statement.

“Black Friday 2025 has really been a great success for us at Peach and we surpassed our 2024 numbers by 1pm today,” said CEO Rahul Jain.

“We have seen a lot more participation from businesses and merchants; merchants in the travel sector have really come to the fore. The Western Cape is leading the online numbers as a lot of online businesses are based there.”

The R1-million figure surpassed two other large transactions made through Peach Payments infrastructure earlier in the day, valued at R378 396 and R336 262.

Absa has also hinted that Black Friday 2025 had surpassed the previous years figures, giving credence to the notion that this may be a market-wide phenomenon. In a statement on Friday afternoon, Absa said it recorded a steady start to Black Friday this year, reporting more than 2% growth in transaction volumes, with transaction values up 7% compared to the same period last year.

Cyber Monday

“By midday, transactional volumes from Absa card holders had already exceeded 2024 levels, with card transactions peaking at 441 per second. Across Absa’s merchant business and including Absa card holder activity, we’ve seen shoppers spending over a broader period of time resulting in a marginal reduction in transaction volumes on the day,” said Absa.

The highest transactions recorded by Absa by midday were a R500 000 luxury hotel booking and over R1-million spent at a rental car company. It is possible that the R1-million figure is the same as the one recorded by Peach Payments. TechCentral has requested clarification from both companies.

Read: Takealot bets on festive boom to deliver first full-year profit

Meanwhile, Absa also predicted that the upcoming Cyber Monday sale would boost Black Friday weekend sales to levels beyond those seen in 2024.

“This Black Friday has also underscored customers’ confidence in shopping online with basket sizes growing 25% year-on-year. We anticipate Absa card activity to steadily increase as consumers take full advantage of extended sales over the weekend, including once-off specials for Absa Rewards customers,” said Christine Wu, co-chief executive of personal and private banking at Absa.

At Discovery Bank, meanwhile, there were also several big-ticket purchases, including one bank customer who spent R500 000 in a single transaction.

When TechCentral asked Discovery for details about the transaction – such as where in South Africa the payment was made and what the money was spent on – a spokeswoman for the company said more details would be revealed on Tuesday after all payments had cleared and data collated.

The average in-store spend by Discovery Bank clients stood at R455 at time of writing, while average online spend was nearly double that at R969. Discovery shoppers aged 46 and older were the biggest spenders.

Read: Chaos as FNB app and website knocked offline on Black Friday

Ecentric Payment Systems was also running a Black Friday dashboard, with 1.9-million transaction valued at just over R600-million facilitated through its platform by lunchtime. The largest transaction was for R210 680. The average transaction value was R510 at time of writing, with an average of 1 540 transactions being processed every minute. – © 2025 NewsCentral Media

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