Members of credit unions that process debit card transactions with CO-OP Financial Services spent 9.2% more on back to school spending this year than they did in 2013.
According to the payments CUSO in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., the members were not spending over 9% more per card but more cards played a role in hiking the numbers.
"An increase in the number of transactions – up 7.9% – holds the key to the 9.2% spending increase," said Stan Hollen, president/CEO of CO-OP. "The amount-per-transaction rose only 1% – $50.72 in 2014 from $50.12 in 2013. So, credit union members were individually spending about the same amount, but there were more members making back-to-school purchases this year."
Members spent the most on computer software, elementary and secondary school supply stores, bookstores and telecom, CO-OP said. The only two merchant categories that lost sales year over year were department and stationary stores.
CO-OP's analysis of sales was based on transactions made during August, with results covering debit card activity nationwide by members of credit unions that use the CUSO for transaction processing.
The year-over-year comparison was performed through an analytics solution, CO-OP Revelation, which is powered by Saylent and was conducted by Saylent's Insight360 consulting team.
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