Thursday, January 13, 2011

Moneris Reports Q4 Increase of 3 Per Cent in Retail Spending

Data reveals that airline, apparel, and restaurant categories led the growth in the last three months of 2010

TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwire - Jan. 13, 2011) - Moneris Solutions (Moneris), Canada's largest payment processor, today announced that Canadian spending continued on a positive trend with an increase of three percent in volume of credit card sales in the fourth quarter of 2010 compared to 2009. This represents a slightly slower pace of growth in relation to the third quarter increase of 4.1 per cent.

The leading category was airlines at 17.29 per cent, followed by apparel at 7.01 per cent. In particular, women's wear saw an excellent growth of 18.3 per cent. However, it wasn't all about purchases as Canadians increased their entertainment spending by 7.7 per cent compared to last year. Consistently in 2010, fast food chains realized significant increases, in terms of the volume of sales, ending the year with an increase of 20.7 per cent compared to 2009.

Declining categories included department stores at -6.4 per cent, CD stores at -13.1 percent and electronics stores at -7.5 per cent. Price competition for products such as televisions may have contributed to some of the decline with average purchase prices decreasing six per cent compared to Q4 2009.

Newfoundland saw the largest growth in the East Coast with an increase of over eight per cent this quarter. Ontario showed slightly slower growth of 1.8 per cent compared to Quebec at 4.5 per cent. In the West, British Columbia and Alberta realized 2.8 per cent and 3.1 per cent growth respectively. New Brunswick and Nova Scotia had the two smallest increases in the country ending the quarter with a minimal growth of one per cent and 1.5 per cent respectively. Overall, Saskatchewan saw the highest increase, bumping up their fourth quarter credit card spending by almost nine per cent.

In terms of holiday spending, Canadians spent the most money on December 22, 2010 and the most number of transactions processed occurred on December 23, 2010. Christmas Eve was the busiest shopping day of the month in terms of the number of transactions processed per second with a record breaking 418 between 2:00 -3:00 pm EST.

Moneris Solutions' analysis of Boxing Week, ending January 8, 2011, a key period for retailers, showed a 2.9 per cent increase in sales overall, helping 2010 end on a positive note.

"2010 was definitely a good year for businesses overall and we are confident this trend will continue in 2011," said Jim Baumgartner, President and CEO, Moneris Solutions. With its real time access to transactional data and Canada's largest share of businesses, Moneris will continue to monitor and report retail spending.

About Moneris Solutions

As one of North America's largest providers of payment processing solutions, Moneris offers credit, debit, and wireless and online payment services for merchants in virtually every industry segment and processes more than three billion transactions annually. Through its Erne division, Moneris offers electronic loyalty and stored-value gift card programs. With more than 350,000 merchant locations, Moneris provides the hardware, software and systems needed to improve business efficiency and manage payments. For more information please visit www.moneris.com.

For more information, please contact

Media Contact:
MAVERICK Public Relations Inc.
Kirsten Walkom
416-640-5525, ext. 237