Total online transactions and spending volume in the U.S. rose again during the recent holiday shopping season compared with a year earlier, while the average transaction amount fell for the second consecutive year, according to new data Chase Paymentech released Jan. 12.
Total online transactions rose 30% and total sales volume rose 17.3% during the nine-week period that began Nov. 5 compared with the same period a year earlier, according to Chase Paymentech’s Cyber Holiday Pulse Index. The Dallas-based payment processor gathers its transaction data from 50 of Internet Retailer magazine’s top 250 Web merchants.
The average ticket size during the recent holiday sales period declined 9.8%, similar to the 10% decline during the 2008 holiday online-sales period, according to the processor, which would not speculate about why average sales amounts continue to fall.
“There are several potential reasons for the decline, but we don’t have the data to say exactly which ones were in play and how important they were,” Aaron Press, Chase Payment director of strategy, tells PaymentsSource.
First Data Corp. separately reported on Jan. 12 that its total retail transactions during December rose 8% compared with the same month in 2008. Total PIN-debit transactions for the month increased by 12.5%, while total credit and signature-debit transactions rose 4.6%. Total electronic benefits transfer card transactions rose 37%, which First Data attributed to higher unemployment rates fueling an increase in government disbursements. The “value merchant” category experienced the highest transaction-growth rate in December rate, 14.1%. Other merchandise categories that showed year-over-year holiday-season transaction growth were gasoline retailers (13.6%), quick-service restaurants (10.7%) and medical services (11.6%).
Hotel industry transaction volume declined 4.8% in December, while mail-order services declined by 1.7%.
Overall, transaction size was down “slightly” in December compared with a year earlier, according to First Data.
Neither processor provided specific data about transactions.
