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CO-OP Finds Online And Experience Purchases Up During Initial 2018 Holiday Shopping Weekend

RANCHO CUCAMONGA, California – 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.

CO-OP Finds Online And Experience Purchases Up During Initial 2018 Holiday Shopping Weekend


Credit, Debit and Online Transaction Data Sheds Light on Credit Union Member Spending Trends
12/6/2018
- RANCHO CUCAMONGA, California – 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 percent of credit card transactions processed by CO-OP came from electronic environments, compared to 25.0 percent in 2017. Debit transactions that came from electronic environments similarly increased by 2.2 percentage points (from 14.8 percent to 16.6 percent). These numbers are in alignment with a November 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.”

 

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 percent 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 percent 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.

 

Experiences Grow In Popularity During Holiday Season

Travel agencies, hotel and restaurant merchant categories experienced sizable increases in both number of credit card purchases and average amounts of those purchases, each up at least 30 percent. This may indicate more people traveled during the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. It may also be a signal of the “experience-over-things” trend.

 

According to Deloitte, consumers have increased their budget for experiences over the last five years. In 2018, experiences represent 40 percent of the planned holiday budget. And, PwC predicted consumers will spend more than 50 percent of their holiday budget on travel and entertainment, including hosting families in their homes and coordinating trips to celebrate with relatives.

 

About CO-OP Financial Services

CO-OP Financial Services is a payments and financial technology company whose mission is ensuring the success of the credit union movement. CO-OP payments solutions, engagement services and strategic counsel help credit unions optimize member experiences to consistently provide seamless, personalized multi-channel offerings, while delivering secure, sophisticated fraud mitigation service. For more information, visit www.co-opfs.org.