Visa: Consumer Spending Surged in Stores on Christmas Eve

Consumer holiday spending surged ahead on Christmas Eve, according to new data released over the weekend by Visa USA. The card company says total spending on its credit and online and signature-based debit cards last Friday came to more than $4.35 billion, up 11.7% from Christmas Eve last year, ranking the day the sixth heaviest in Visa volume since Nov. 1. Since that date, when Visa began reporting daily volume for the holiday season, dollar volume on its cards has hit $194 billion, an increase of nearly 19% from the same period in 2003. The retail segment enjoying the biggest increase in Christmas Eve spending was that comprising discount and mass merchandisers and drug stores, where volume spiked almost 29%, to $404 million. By contrast, direct sales channels like mail order and the Internet saw declines, with mail/phone order falling by nearly a third as consumers shifted transaction activity to stores one day before Christmas. E-commerce transactions grew 8.4% over Dec. 24, 2003, reaching 2.6 million, but dollar volume dropped slightly, to $171 million. The closely watched quick-service segment, where the card companies are trying to replace cash with electronic transactions, saw a jump of nearly 54% in Visa dollar volume on Christmas Eve, to $48 million, with transactions soaring 64%, to just over 3 million. The average QSR ticket since Nov. 1 is $15.68 on Visa products.