Image via CrunchBaseCard Based Spending Surges on Black Friday; Same-Store Dollar Volume Up 12.3%
ATLANTA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--First Data Corporation, a global leader in electronic commerce and payment processing, today released its First Data SpendTrend™ analysis for Black Friday 2010compared to Black Friday 2009. SpendTrend tracks same-store consumer spending via credit, signature debit, PIN debit and EBT cards at U.S. merchant locations.
On Black Friday 2010, card spending growth returned to pre-recession levels. Overall, consumers responded favorably to aggressive Black Friday marketing campaigns which resulted in year-over-year same-store dollar volume growth of 12.3%. Transaction growth showed strength at 10.1%. Americans also substantially increased their Thanksgiving-related travel and food consumption. Overall dollar volume growth was particularly good in light of solid spending in the comparable Black Friday of 2009 when year-over-year dollar volume growth was 4.8%. The Retailer merchant category saw somewhat more muted dollar volume growth of 8.6%.
After several months of declining average purchases, consumers actually increased their overall average purchase size by 1.9% on Black Friday 2010. Despite discounting across most merchant categories, consumers made bigger purchases. Among Retailers, average tickets increased 1.1% as average ticket gains by “softline” retailers such as Clothing/Accessory Stores were somewhat offset by average ticket declines among “hardline” retailers including Electronics/Appliances Stores.
Overall, Retailers saw Black Friday 2010 dollar volume growth of 8.6%. However, three retail subcategories did particularly well, posting double digit sales increases. Leading the way were General Merchandise Stores (including Value Retail), which outperformed all other retail sub-categories with dollar volume growth of 12.6%. Clothing sales were quite strong as Clothing/Accessory Stores posted dollar volume growth of 10.6%. Sporting Goods/Hobby/Book and Music Stores saw dollar volume growth improve to 12.2%. Conversely, the higher ticket category ofElectronics/Appliances fared poorly and was down -6.7% compared to last year. Consumers may be holding out for lower prices on electronics later in the holiday season.
As consumers flooded shopping malls in search of holiday deals this Black Friday, average tickets at Retailers increased 1.1% compared to last year. Consumers were willing to spend when the price was right. General Merchandise Stores (including Value Retail) was one of the most successful at increasing average ticket sizes due to a broader selection of sale items. Mail Order, Telephone Order and Online sales had the biggest drop in average tickets as consumers cherry picked deals offered by NonStore Retailers.
Overall Industry View of Black Friday 2010
Black Friday dollar volume growth was 12.3%, a significant improvement over last year. Retail merchants lured value-conscious consumers with low prices in the hopes that consumers would purchase more items. This strategy appears to have worked with improved dollar volume growth and increased average ticket sizes. Thanksgiving-related purchases also substantially increased. Travel merchant dollar volume growth was 15.9% as more Americans travelled for the Thanksgiving holiday. Food/Beverage Stores (Supermarket/Grocery) also had an impressive Black Friday with dollar volume growth of 17.0% and average ticket growth of 5.8%.
For more information on First Data SpendTrend, visit www.firstdata.com/infoanalytics or call SpendTrend Customer Care at 800-430-0169.
About First Data
First Data powers the global economy by making it easy, fast and secure for people and businesses to buy goods and services using virtually any form of electronic payment. Whether the choice of payment is a gift card, a credit or debit card or a check, First Data securely processes the transaction and harnesses the power of the aggregate data to deliver intelligence and insight for millions of merchant locations and thousands of card issuers in 36 countries. For more information, visit www.firstdata.com.
First Data SpendTrend, a macro-economic indicator, is based on aggregate same-store sales activity in the First Data Point of Sale Network. First Data SpendTrend does not represent First Data’s financial performance.
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