A day in the life of a South African consumer
New data complied by BankservAfrica reveals that the average ATM withdrawal increased by only 1.3% in December 2013, from the previous year, as did credit card transactions.
BankservAfrica, a local clearing house which facilitates retail electronic transactions between banks, noted that on average, debit card transactions only increased by 1%.
Average transaction values in real time clearing via electronic transfers increased by 4.9% and surprisingly the average cheque transaction values also increased by 7.4% despite fewer cheques being used, it said.
Petrol
Mike Schüssler, chief economist at economists.co.za, says that these transaction values reveal very interesting facts about the everyday life of South African consumers.
The average value of all card transactions at service stations shows that, on average, motorists spent R489.70 every time they stopped at a service station. This was an increase of 3.9%, while the price of petrol increased by 9.8% in Gauteng.
“Compared to last year, the average petrol stop resulted in about 2.2 litres less fuel being purchased between service station stops. This is a good indication that consumers are looking at ways of reducing expenses as the economy and the weak rand start to bite.”
In stark contrast to other consumer spending, electricity prices increased by 8% year on year and water bill increases were generally in double digits. Interestingly, utility bills increased by 3.5%, between December 2012 and December 2013.
“The BankservAfrica data also shows that the average trolley in the supermarket cost just over R400 in December, which was up by only 1.6% on 2012.
“This clearly indicates a cutting back by consumers, as this is about 4% below the inflation rate. Many department stores had a hard time with clothing, books and music sales which all grew average transaction values below the inflation rate,” Schüssler said.
“Even South African satellite TV services had an average transaction value increase below inflation, reflecting the fact that consumers still want entertainment but are getting jittery about paying for it,” the economist said.
Online wins Christmas
Online and telesales retailers saw 27.1% growth in average transaction values under the category of catalogue merchants and a 177.9% increase under the category “inbound tele-services merchants”.
These categories could include some internet merchants, BankservAfrica said, noting that their number of transactions are still relatively small.
“However this is an emerging market category which will be interesting to follow in the future,” it said.
On the positive side, hotels and airlines had relatively strong increases in transactional values.
The average value of a card transaction in South African hotels was 21% up on a year ago, while airlines saw a 6.1% increase. Car rentals also saw a 9.3% increase in transactional value.
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