Cardholder Transaction Sizes Bigger Online Than In-Store
CO-OP Financial Services releases new data in the Black Friday shopping experience.
The Rancho Cucamonga, Calif.-based company reported that 27.5% of the credit card transactions it processed between Thanksgiving Day and Cyber Monday came from electronic environments, compared to 25% in 2017. Debit transactions that came from electronic environments also increased, rising from 14.8% in 2017 to 16.6% this year.
Cardholders didn’t just do more shopping online — they made bigger purchases online too, according to the data.
“The data shows cardholders tend to spend more per transaction when shopping online,” CO-OP said. “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.”
During the Black Friday weekend, credit cardholders spent an average of $292 — nearly 20% higher than last year, when the average was $246. Debit cardholders spent an average of $210 during that period, which was an 11% increase over 2017, CO-OP said.
“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 noted.
Cardholders also appeared more interested in buying experiences over the Black Friday weekend. According to CO-OP, the number of credit card purchases and the average purchase amount in the travel agency, hotel, and restaurant merchant categories were each up by at least 30% this year.
“This may indicate more people traveled during the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. It may also be a signal of the ‘experience-over-things’ trend,” the company noted.
CO-OP’s findings follow a recent survey from Citi Retail Services, which found that 73% of holiday shoppers planned to buy gifts in person at physical stores this year, but 42% also planned to shop from their smartphones and tablets. In addition, 57% planned to use their computers to shop, and 13% planned on using a virtual assistant such as Alexa or Siri. More than three-quarters (84%) of the respondents in that survey also said they planned to shop at stores where they are rewards members, and 60% said they had saved up rewards during the year so they could spend them on holiday gifts.
“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,” CO-OP President and CEO Todd Clark said. “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.”