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MONEY

Danish stores got surprisingly busy on Black Friday

Online and retail trade in Denmark has recently experienced a tough few months, with consumer confidence in the economy at a record low and declining sales. But on Friday, the pessimism apparently subsided.

Black Friday
Black Friday turned out to be a huge success in Denmark this year. Photo by Ashkan Forouzani / Unsplash

Both online and brick-and-mortar stores registered surprisingly good sales numbers, according to what Niels Ralund, director of e-commerce at Dansk Erhverv, told the news agency Ritzau.

“We believe that Black Friday was roughly (at) the same (level) as last year, and that is actually quite good.

“Toys have done fantastically well, books have done badly, and electronics are at the same level as last year,” Ralund added.

The payment service MobilePay also reports a lot of traffic on Black Friday.

“We ended up with a solid record day for MobilePay on Black Friday… However, the first four days of Black Week were at an even higher level because the stores have been very aggressive with good offers,” Lars Green, the commercial manager for MobilePay Online, stated in a written comment.

On Friday, goods worth a total of 881 million kroner were purchased via MobilePay in Danish stores, making the total purchase volume 19 percent higher than on Black Friday last year.

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MONEY

New Danish card charges ‘will be passed on to consumers’

Customers in Denmark can expect prices to rise in shops when a new charge for using the country’s Dankort card payment system takes effect on April 1st.

New Danish card charges 'will be passed on to consumers'

Nets, which owns the Dankort network on which most bank payment cards in Denmark operate, is set to introduce an additional 8.9 percent charge for businesses which accept Dankort from the beginning of next month.

The charge will “ultimately” be passed on to customers, according to Jannick Nytoft, the director of the national interest organisation for store owners, De Samvirkende Købmænd (DSK).

“Ultimately there is only one place where the price [increase] can be recovered, and that’s with the customers because the costs [for businesses] will go up,” Nytoft said to newswire Ritzau.

Nets has raised the price for accepting Dankort in physical transactions following a decline in the total number of Dankort transactions.

READ ALSO: Dankort: What is Denmark’s payment card and how is it different from other card types?

Figures from the Danish central bank, Nationalbanken, show that the number of Dankort transactions fell by 27 percent last year, a trend related to the increasing popularity in Denmark of digital wallets such as Apple Pay.

If the costs of running the Dankort system don’t fall along with revenue from transactions, the cost per transaction must increase, Nets has said.

Nytoft said it was a “real shame” that Nets has found it necessary to raise the price for Dankort.

“Most Dankort cards are not compatible with Google Pay and Apple Pay. Only [bank] Danske Bank has them in there. We need a lot more Dankort on Google Pay and Apple Pay,” he said.

Nets is pushing for all banks to allow their Dankort payment cards to be used on Google Pay and Apple Pay.

At least two banks — Arbejdernes Landsbank and Nordea – have said they plan to do this no later than 2025.

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