Visa and Discovery Bank predict that a return to office will drive up spend on fuel, eating out and takeaways in 2025.
This backs a claim by return to-office proponents that such activity is good for local economies that directly service or benefit from corporate buildings, industrial parks and other places of work being occupied.
During the Covid-19 lockdowns many companies were forced to adopt remote working to continue operations due to strict restrictions on movement. Using technology, businesses — particularly those in professional services — were able to continue operating during the pandemic. Realising the benefits and flexibility of this shift to remote work, a number of organisations then permanently adopted a hybrid approach in which work can be done either at the office or remotely.
While this shift has also led to savings on office rentals for some companies and greater flexibility for employees, many business leaders in SA, and globally, are fighting for things to return to what they were before the lockdown, expecting staff to be at the office full time.
“As more people return to the office, fuel spending has surged,” says the Discovery Bank and Visa SpendTrend25 report. The average spend on fuel for every active card in the study grew 5% in 2024, marking a 9 percentage point increase.
This week, the two financial services operators released their third annual collaborative report of SA consumer spending habits based on an in-depth analysis of credit card spend data.
This, combined with the companies’ extensive data sets and analytical expertise, ranks how consumer spending habits have evolved in 2019-24 among Discovery Bank clients and the broader population.
“Many companies are encouraging workers to return to the office by enforcing hybrid and in-office work models. As a result, consumers who had previously semigrated are now returning to urban centres to manage costs,” said the report.
“We also foresee a further increased shift in eating out and takeouts as consumers seek more time-saving options to balance out their return to the office. This is likely to continue throughout 2025 as more companies continue to encourage more in-office days.”
Based on Discovery Insure’s updated 2025 Work From Home Index report, nearly 60% of clients are back in the office five days a week. For those back in the office two or three days a week, Monday is the most popular in-office day.
Globally, one of the first high-profile business leaders to take a stand against remote working was Netflix founder Reed Hastings, as early as 2020.
As more people return to the office, fuel spending has surged, reflecting the shift back to regular commutes. Fuel prices have dipped on average, and “many clients now settle for convenience over a margin of economy in deciding when to fill up”.
In addition to Visa and Discovery Bank’s data, the companies commissioned an independent public survey to capture more detailed perspectives on the use of cash and digital payments, use of subscription services, banking security perceptions and the influence of AI on financial behaviour.
For example, Discovery Bank CEO Hylton Kallner noted that “while we’ve seen a material shift to digital payments in our spend data, this is backed up by consumer preferences whereby over 80% of South Africans surveyed are choosing cards or digital payments over cash whenever they can, and the same percentage engage more with their credit card rewards and benefits than they did a year ago as they focus on value-based spending”.
“And while digital banking has increased client financial safety, three out of five South Africans are more worried about their banking security than a year ago.”
Lineshree Moodley, country head for Visa SA, highlighted that AI will begin to inform consumer purchasing decisions, with consumers paying for more AI services.
She said consumers are likely to deepen their reliance on AI tools to help increase productivity but also expand their spending decisions through features such as price comparisons and product ratings.
“We’ve seen an increase in companies adopting subscription models for digital services. On the consumer side, we’ve seen a rise in spend on subscriptions for generative AI, particularly ChatGPT and Perplexity,” Moodley said.
According to the report, spend on subscription services grew 8% year on year from 2019 to 2024.
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