SpendTrend23 Report by Visa and Discovery Bank Points to Price Inflation Driving Grocery Spend and Loadshedding Influencing Takeout Meal Consumption

In a landmark collaborative initiative, Visa and Discovery Bank today announced their Spendtrend23 report, which is aimed at identifying and understanding shifts in consumer spending behaviour during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.

Highlights include:

  • South Africans’ spending via credit card has bounced back and is more than 20% higher than pre-pandemic levels.
  • Spend on categories such as groceries, travel and eating out are the key drivers for the increase.
  • The effect of Covid on payment systems has been sustained with contactless payments on the rise, and digital wallet payments adoption is also expected to grow strongly.

Hylton Kallner, CEO of Discovery Bank said: “As a bank built on the use of big data and digital technology, we believe it’s important to share our unique insights on spending data that reflects the true performance of our economy. While it’s easy to be swayed by a negative narrative about financial trends and the implications for our country’s prospects, when we look at the data, we can see that our economy is often more resilient than we give it credit for. We’re proud to partner with Visa to deliver powerful insights to the industry and business leaders across the spectrum.”

Lineshree Moodley, Country Head for Visa South Africa said: “Visa is constantly working to remove barriers – and connect more people – to the digital economy and data can enlighten us on the path to get there. The SpendTrend23 report is testament to our longstanding partnership with Discovery Bank. We are proud to be able to collaborate to bring relevant insights that we hope will drive meaningful conversation and action within our industry.”

Other key findings include:

How people spend:

  • Consumers who were compelled to use online shopping and contactless payment methods during the pandemic are continuing to do so now:

“We continuously analyse spending behaviour to understand how we can enhance our clients’ lives and improve our products. Identifying trends such as these outlined in the report enables the industry as a whole to provide

consumers with seamless, convenient ways to interact in a digital economy. It is our aim, as a Bank built on digital technology, to share insights that reflect the behaviour of consumers to create better experiences and bolster the performance of our economy,” concluded Kallner.

Download a copy of the report here.

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