RANCHO CUCAMONGA, Calif.– Credit and debit cardholders are increasingly completing their holiday shopping online and spending more money on experiences, according to analysis of Thanksgiving Day through Cyber Monday card transaction data by CO-OP Financial Services.
This year, 27.5% of credit card transactions processed by CO-OP came from electronic environments, compared to 25.0% in 2017. Debit transactions that came from electronic environments similarly increased by 2.2 percentage points (from 14.8% to 16.6%). These numbers are in alignment with a Nov. 24 report by Adobe Analytics, which revealed Black Friday 2018 was the first day in history to see more than $2 billion in sales from smartphones.
“Data helps us spot patterns, identify trends and get an overall better idea of the ways cardholders rely on their credit union-issued payment tools,” said Todd Clark, president/CEO of CO-OP. “With that intelligence, we can provide more meaningful insight to our credit union partners, helping them design the kind of personalized, predictive experiences members are increasingly looking for.”
More Spent Per Transaction
The data shows cardholders tend to spend more per transaction when shopping online. In 2018, the average electronic transaction made with a credit card was approximately $100. In-person credit transactions, on the other hand, averaged $77.84, while debit displayed similar results with electronic transaction averages at $54.80 and in-person averages at $40.70.
The average amount of money spent per cardholder was also up this year, and in some cases, significantly. Credit cardholders spent an average of $292 over the five-day period, up almost 20% over last year’s average of $246. For their part, debit cardholders spent an average of $210 from Thanksgiving Day through Cyber Monday. That’s an increase of 11% over the same period in 2017.
Black Friday was the biggest shopping day across both card types in terms of total spend, followed by Cyber Monday among credit card users and Small Business Saturday among debit card users, CO-OP said.