In Switzerland, Black Friday is already the biggest shopping event of the year. It always takes place on the Friday after Thanksgiving in the USA and this year fell on November 26th. E-commerce also benefits from the most profitable day of the year.

The Swiss payment service provider Payrexx specializes in processing digital payments from small and medium-sized e-commerce merchants and has conducted a data collection of online transactions on Black Friday 2021 and the Friday before. Furthermore, the developments of transactions on Black Friday were analyzed compared to the previous year.

Online revenues twice as high

Compared to the previous Friday, online revenues processed via the Payrexx payment platform more than doubled on Black Friday. The most profitable times were in the morning. Between 10 and 12 o'clock, consumers were particularly eager to buy, as the following graphs show.

Temporal analysis of transaction volume on 19.11.2021 and 26.11.2021

Online purchases increased by 85 percent

The number of transactions increased by around 85%, and the 10% increase in the average cart size also shows that consumers are willing to spend more money on Black Friday.

Temporal analysis of transaction numbers on 19.11.2021 and 26.11.2021

Declines compared to last year

Compared to Black Friday 2020, the analysis of the average transaction volume per merchant showed a decline of 25%. Last year, the volume was CHF 1,346 per merchant, whereas this year it was only CHF 1,014.

An explanation for this is provided by the data from Adobe Analytics. According to the data, consumers returned to stores more this year, which led to a decline in online trading.

Data collection

The data shows an analysis of transactions processed via the Payrexx platform. The analysis is based on a sample of 550 e-commerce small businesses with a maximum transaction volume of 1 million CHF per year. The measurement includes data from 19.11.2021, 26.11.2021, and 27.11.2020 between 0:00 and 23:59.

This is Payrexx

Payrexx was founded in 2015 in Thun and has specialized as a payment institution for processing digital payment methods. The Swiss company operates a self-developed payment platform as an accredited Payment Facilitator for Mastercard and Visa. Over 40,000 customers across Europe handle their transactions through the cloud-based platform. The range extends from regionally strong companies such as BKW, Swiss Youth Hostels, and Swissmilk to large corporations such as SBB, Swiss Post, Swisscom, and SIXT.

The platform integrates over 40 payment providers and more than 200 payment methods and currencies from around the world through a single interface. These include popular payment types such as Mastercard and Visa, as well as TWINT, PostFinance, and PayPal.

All Payrexx systems are designed redundantly, guarantee the highest failure safety, and are certified according to the strictest PCI-DSS Level 1 standards.