As Black Friday weekend approaches, Float, Africa’s first card-linked instalment platform, has seen explosive growth with over 1 000 stores being added to the platform this year and expects around a 100% increase on the number of transactions processed in 2023.
Last year, the Black Friday weekend made up 21% of Float’s November transaction values, with a 140% increase on the same period in October. “We’re expecting similar performance this year, in terms of the transaction uplift over Black Friday. However, the difference is that our platform now has a broader network of merchants across a wider range of categories. As a result, we’ve seen repeat usage of our product go up by 229%,” said Float CEO, Alex Forsyth-Thompson.
Electronics and appliances were the top-selling categories during Black Friday in 2023, making up more than 50% of transactions. Leisure sports and hobbies, furniture and homeware and home improvement made up the bulk of the remainder. This year, Float expects fashion and footwear to play a much bigger role, with the Cape Union Mart, Superdry, Diesel, Reebok and many others now on board.
“Whilst Float’s primary use case is for big-ticket purchases like laptops, bicycles, tyres or sofas, we expect to see around 20% of our transactions come from our fashion and footwear brands over the Black Friday period. There are now many more of these stores on our platform since 2023, but also because this category traditionally drives strong discounts and promotions over the period.”
As shoppers scan for deals on big-ticket items they’ve been eyeing for months, they should factor in the challenge of early December paydays. Getting paid early for the holidays can feel like a bonus, but it also means making that salary last an extra few weeks until the next payday.
“Offering interest-free instalments gives shoppers the flexibility to spread their payments over several paycheques – in Float’s case, this is an average of four to six paycheques. And because Float’s card-linked instalment model works exclusively within the available limit on existing credit cards, consumers do not have to take out any new loans or lines of credit. The solution is designed to help with cash flow management and to promote truly responsible credit-based spending – especially during the festive season,” Forsyth-Thompson explained.
“We expect the trend towards e-commerce to continue over the Black Friday weekend. Combined with the drastically increased cost of living, we expect to see an increased shift towards instalment options like Float – especially from shoppers that had not previously considered this. The ability to split purchases into more manageable, monthly payments is a critical tool for merchants to win in this economic environment.”
Float’s card-linked instalment platform is differentiated from the traditional Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) model in that it does not issue shoppers with new credit. Instead, Float promotes responsible usage of existing credit by helping shoppers to split credit card purchases over up to 24 interest-free monthly instalments. Whilst the purpose of traditional BNPL is to drive transaction volumes away from credit cards, Float has expanded the BNPL market to serve more than 6.5m credit cards across South Africa.
