After years of interest rate hikes starting in 2021, we can finally all take a small breath. Things are starting to look up. The Reserve Bank’s monetary policy committee’s (MPC) decision to lower the repo rate by 25 basis points is sure to put less pressure on consumers’ pockets in the months to come.
Lula’s partnership with payments gateway Peach Payments aims to bring fast, flexible solutions to businesses.
In the build-up to the highly anticipated Black Friday Cyber Monday (BFCM) 2024 weekend, which runs from 29 November to 2 December, Anine de Kock, Head of Partnerships at the payments gateway shares the latest trends in the payments and e-commerce space. For retailers specifically, this provides valuable insights on how best to prepare for the peak shopping season.
“According to World Wide Worx (WWW) 2024 online retail report, e-commerce is on the rise in South Africa and ready to reach over 6% of total retail in South Africa by 2025. A higher amount of transactions is likely to be taking place online compared to previous years,” says Anine.
50% of businesses surveyed reported that Black Friday was important for their business’s operations, and a peak time for consumer spending, second only to the Christmas holiday season. Peach Payments alone recorded processing over 1.1 million transactions in 2023, totalling R872 million.
Top Trends to Look out for
The Rise in Popularity of Buy Now, Pay Layer (BNPL) Payment Methods
In terms of payment methods, Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) options are increasingly gaining popularity, especially during peak sales periods like BFCM, where customers want to take advantage of deals, but may not have the money upfront to do so. Digital wallets such as Apple Pay, Samsung Pay and Google Pay are also growing in popularity.
Increase in Purchases Made from Mobile Devices
Over 50% of online purchases happen on mobile devices. It is critical to ensure that your website is mobile friendly and loads quickly on mobile devices. This means optimising your website with lighter code, compressed images and fewer animations could be the defining factor between making a sale or losing one.
5 Ways Businesses Can Prepare for BFCM
1. Ramp Up Your Website Performance and Security
Make sure that your website’s performance is optimised across browsers and devices. You can also check whether your website host’s servers are performing optimally and consider increasing your bandwidth to prepare for the increased traffic demand.
Double-check that the information on your website is accurate and up to date. This includes prices, promotions or discounts that your business offers.
If you have an e-commerce presence, make sure that the payment gateway you’re using is 3-D secure.
2. Prioritise Marketing Before and During BFCM Weekend
Don’t make the mistake of doing a lot of marketing in the lead-up to BFCM, but stop when things get busy over the weekend.
Black Friday weekend is the ideal time to run Google Ads, as consumers are actively looking for the best deals. Check that your budget is enough to carry you through the weekend.
3. Keep Emergency Contacts on Hand
Keep an emergency contact list on hand in a place that is visible to all staff members.
In addition to the more traditional police, security company, ambulance and fire department numbers, expand the list with contacts you wouldn’t normally include, such as key contacts at your bank, point-of-sale equipment provider, web hosting provider, courier company and your suppliers.
4. Hone Your Customer Service
Make sure that you have enough staff on duty over the Black Friday weekend to answer questions and fulfil orders. Based on historical data provided by Peach Payments, South Africans tend to shop first thing in the morning, over lunchtime and just after supper, which aren’t typical office hours.
Allocate staff to answer queries and process orders during those times. The rest of the day can be used to pick, package and dispatch orders.
5. Take Advantage of Business Funding
When used responsibly, business funding can be a huge boost for your business and help you meet demand over the BFCM weekend. You can use business funding to your advantage in a number of ways:
- Invest in strategic marketing initiatives to boost your brand awareness ahead of BFCM and advertise your deals far and wide.
- Upgrade your technology, infrastructure, storage or storage space to accommodate a higher turnover of products.
- Buy more stock ahead of BFCM to ensure you can meet demand.
- Hire employees on a temporary basis to manage increased sales volumes ahead of time.
With Lula you can access up to R5 million in business funding within as little as 24 hours. Our innovative assessment technology cuts the approval time to a bare minimum so that you don’t have to wait for weeks to get the funding you need. You can apply for business funding in minutes through a quick and easy online application form. To find out if you qualify – apply now.
