Discovery has released its first SpendTrend report on the spending patterns of its clients. This is for the 2021 calendar year. And what a relief – no boring page after page after page of heavy text to wade through – just the key information in a user-friendly graphic-heavy format that shows how these things can be done in the sound-bite, CGI technology era.
There is a lot of interesting information in the report, including an increase of 31% in monthly card spend in 2021, with increases seen in the ‘eating out and takeaways’ and ‘flights’ categories. The increase was particularly apparent in the second half of the year, which aligns with the lockdowns lifting.
Spend on ‘groceries’ was down, in alignment with the increase in the ‘eating out and takeaways’ category. Spend on ‘home improvements’ was also down – probably because most people did all the home improving they needed to during the tight lockdowns and because they are no longer locked-up and can now spend time playing sport, socialising and travelling.
There are interesting variations in what people are doing per day of the week, with the research showing the favourite days of the week for making certain purchases:
- Monday: Online shopping, data, utilities
- Tuesday: Flights. Also fuel, with those in the North West spending 22% more than those in Mpumalanga
- Wednesday: Event tickets
- Thursday: Alcohol – all clients, but the under-30 age group prefers to buy on Saturdays
- Friday: Health products, with people in the Western Cape spending 39% more than people in Limpopo. Also takeaways, with Gautengers spending 94% more than those in the Northern Cape
- Saturday: DIY. Also groceries, with those in the Western Cape spending 62% more than people in the Free State. Also clothing, with Gautengers spending 37% more than those in the Eastern Cape
- Sunday: Religious donations, ice cream
Favourite grocery stores are Woolworths, Pick n Pay and Spar. Seniors like to buy their groceries on a Friday (no doubt to evade the weekend crush), while singles, couples and families prefer to buy groceries on a Saturday. With the latter groups, there is probably a big proportion in full time employment and with young children to attend to, so week days will be busy.
Favourite clothing stores are Superbalist.com, Pick n Pay Clothing, H&M, Mr Price and Zara. Favourite restaurants are McDonalds, Kentucky, Nandos and Mugg & Bean. Favourite stores for health products are Dis-Chem, Clicks and Wellness Warehouse.
Favourite local destinations for travel are Cape Town, Durban and Johannesburg. Heathrow was the top destination for overseas travellers and other favourite destinations were: UAE, Australia, Maldives, USA, Ireland, France, Netherlands, Portugal, Switzerland. Obviously some of these are not final destination, as they will be the long-haul landing hub from which travellers will travel on to their final destinations, e.g. UAE and the European countries.
Client profile data is not included in the report.
(Sources: Discovery (//www.discovery.co.za/bank/spend-trend).
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