RANCHO CUCAMONGA, Calif. — Consumers swiped and clicked their plastic over Thanksgiving weekend, as analysis from multiple sources found credit spending increased almost 13% while debit spending increased nearly 7%, compared with last year.
Debit spending was up 6.71% during the holiday weekend starting Nov. 27 (Thanksgiving Day) and ending Dec. 1 (Cyber Monday) according to data analyzed by CO-OP Financial Services here, and Franklin, Mass.-based data analytics firm Saylent,
The data covered debit activity at 20 different merchant types nationwide by members of credit unions that use CO-OP's transaction processing. The companies said the year-over-year comparison was performed using CO-OP Revelation (an analytics solution) powered by Saylent, and was conducted by Saylent's FInsights360 consulting team.
"This year CO-OP and Saylent have tracked debit card spending during four periods — Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, August back-to-school shopping and now Thanksgiving — and we have found increases in each case," said Stan Hollen, president and CEO of CO-OP. "As with back-to-school shopping, the increased number of transactions was key to the increase in total dollars spent."
Additional data from the CO-OP and Saylent debit-card spending analysis included:
- Comparing 2013 to 2014, credit union members increased their debit card usage and spend most at cosmetic stores, with a close to 108% increase in transactions and a 98% increase in spend.
- The following types of merchants also experienced strong growth compared to last year: family clothing stores, with a 27% increase in debit card transactions and a more than 21% increase in spend; and home furnishing retailers, with an 8% increase in debit card transactions and an increase in spend of more than 20%.
- People love their pets, increasing their debit card transaction volume by more than 13% and spending more than 20% more at pet stores than they did last year over this time period.
- The day with the largest increase in debit card spending compared to last year was not Black Friday or Cyber Monday, but rather Thanksgiving Day, with an increase of 14%. This uptick may be reflective of the broader retail trend of opening in the afternoon and evening on Thanksgiving, CO-OP said.
"Despite reports that shopping was down over this time period compared to last year, we found debit card spending in fact increased across members of the credit unions we analyzed," said Tyson Nargassans, president and CEO of Saylent. "This continues the trend we have seen throughout each of the time periods we examined this year, with credit union members increasing their debit card usage and spend compared to 2013."
TMG: Credit Spending Also Up
During the same Thanksgiving Day to Cyber Monday period, Des Moines, Iowa-based The Members Group looked at credit card spending and found a 12.97% increase by users who carry credit cards issued by TMG's financial institution clients.
TMG said its analysts attributed this to "healthy growth" in the credit card portfolios of TMG's clients and the fact cardholders used their credit cards on average 1.35% more this year as compared to last year.
The analysis was performed with the card processor's proprietary analysis tool, ClearTrend. TMG said the tool can provide similar data on a per-FI basis for its processing clients.
"Our issuing partners want to understand transaction volume trends, yet they are also interested in data that demonstrates an evolution in the way consumers are paying," said TMG CEO Shazia Manus. "Are they increasingly turning to digital channels? And when they are, which platforms are providing the best experience? These are just a few of the critical data points our credit union and community-based financial institution clients rely on as they develop new payment strategies for the future."
Additional data from TMG found:
- Electronic spending (shopping from online and mobile devices with a credit card) increased 24.7% year-over-year.
- Given the increase in electronic spending, Amazon unsurprisingly led all merchants in credit card spending. Cardholders carrying credit cards issued by TMG clients initiated 32.58% more transactions with Amazon this year as compared to 2013.
- Of the three days analyzed (Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Cyber Monday), Black Friday was the biggest day for credit card spending, accounting for 42.03% of all credit card transactions. On average, the transacting cardholder also spent more on Black Friday ($147.63) compared to Cyber Monday ($131.45) and Thanksgiving ($111.54).
- While many consumers may have been shopping for gifts, most appeared to be filling their pantries. Grocery stores and supermarket purchases comprised the greatest number of credit card transactions. This merchant category experienced a 21.83% increase over 2013 figures.
