South Africa’s busiest shopping mall on Black Friday

This year, the Mall of Africa saw over 25,000 visitors on Black Friday, followed by Menlyn Park and Gateway Theatre of Shopping.

This is according to data from Lightstone, which estimates that 4.3 million vehicles stopped at 1,850 monitored malls or shopping centres on Black Friday this year.

This is marginally up by 2.5% on last year, but the 25.7 million vehicle stops during Black Friday week were up by 10% compared to 2023’s Black Friday week.

This is according to aggregated and anonymised telemetry data made available to Lightstone by Tracker. 

It is important to note that the data refers to vehicle stops and not people, and only one stop per vehicle per mall per day was counted.

Interestingly, the larger malls recorded the highest proportionate increases. 

Large malls – those above 70,000 m² in gross lettable area – recorded a 28% increase in stops during Black Friday week.

For medium-sized malls, steps increased by between 16% and 21%, while smaller centres saw an increase of 9%.

Of the malls analysed by Lightstone, the top five were from either Gauteng or KwaZulu-Natal.

Mall of Africa in Midrand was the country’s busiest on Black Friday, followed by Menlyn Park Shopping Centre in Pretoria and KwaZulu-Natal’s Gateway Theatre of Shopping. The Pavilion in Westville came in fourth place, while Sandton City came fifth. 

Canal Walk Shopping Centre outside Cape Town was sixth and the first from outside Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal.

Lightstone explained that while most malls recorded increased vehicle stops in 2024, a concerning trend emerged.

The data showed that shoppers also spent less dwell time at most malls compared to 2023, with just three in KwaZulu-Natal recording better numbers in 2024.

Cape Town’s V&A Waterfront Victoria Wharf again topped the dwell time rankings in terms of minutes spent inside the mall, although 2024 was down to just over 130 minutes from nearly 230 minutes in 2023.

The graph below shows the busiest malls on Black Friday this year and how dwell time has dropped at most centres.

Retail boost

Retailers received a significant boost this Black Friday, with Capitec, South Africa’s biggest bank by customers, recording a 27% year-on-year increase in client spending across Friday and Saturday.

The bank announced that clients spent R25.45 billion, enough to buy over 7.2 million tickets to the Springboks vs All Blacks game at DHL Stadium and fill it 132 times over.

“Our transaction data points to South Africans’ Black Friday shopping extending over the weekend, not just Friday,” said Group Executive: Marketing and Communications at Capitec Francois Viviers. 

“There’s also a clear trend of more South Africans shifting from cash to card and from in-store to online shopping.” 

“Additionally, we see a growing focus on shopping for essentials rather than luxury items. Considering our client base that covers a third of our country’s population, this behaviour reflects a broader national trend of wiser and more strategic financial decisions.”

This tracks with commentary from Momentum Investments chief economist Sanisha Packirisamy, who said that, during Black Friday, consumers prioritized essential goods over luxury items.

She said this reflects South Africa’s ongoing economic pressures and the country’s high cost of living.

Capitec said the weekend saw several significant purchases, with the largest single-card purchases made in the following essential categories:

• Grocery store: R287,535.82
• Home improvements & hardware: R245,590.38
• Clothing and fashion store: R53,980.69

The bank said grocery retailers collectively recorded R1.98 billion in spending. 

Shoprite maintained its position as the leading retailer, processing 892,408 Capitec Card payments, and Clicks emerged as the dominant pharmacy retailer, with over 304,000 payments.

Discovery Bank reported similar findings, with food and drink topping the list for top categories by total card spend value and total card purchases.

The bank’s top in-store retailer was Woolworths, followed by Spar and Checkers.

In terms of eCommerce, Takealot topped the list among Discovery Bank and Capitec clients this past Friday