Over 2,600 transactions set to take place every minute on a Visa card
5.5% year-on-year growth for Mega Monday online spending
Today is set to be the busiest ever day for online shopping in the UK, according to analysis by Visa Europe. The payments company expects a total of £265m to be spent online by consumers with their Visa cards, the majority (80%) of which will be spent on debit cards. Year-on-year, total online sales on Visa cards for retailers on Mega Monday are expected to increase by 5.5% in real terms.
For the previous two years, the busiest online shopping day has always been the Monday closest to the start of December and this year it falls on 29th November. In 2009 the peak in online spending occurred on Monday 30th November and in 2008, this was on Monday 1st December, according to Visa’s analysis.
Shoppers will spend an average of £184,000 every minute or just over £3,000 per second across the day, with transactions forecast to peak in the lunch hour between 13:00 and 14:00. A second peak is expected around 19:00 as shoppers log on after returning home from work.
Visa Europe’s new processing platform, completed in September, is predicted to handle over 3.8m transactions in the UK during Mega Monday alone or 2,638 every minute as consumers increasingly turn to the internet for their Christmas shopping. This increasing preference for online shopping has been buoyed in part by a continuing decline in the volume of ‘card-not-present’ fraud, a large proportion of which is for online transactions.
Research commissioned by Visa highlights that consumers are planning a bumper Christmas spend this year with 40% planning to spend more on their Christmas shopping. One in five (20%) are expecting to spend over £250 more than in 2009 on Christmas presents and 8% expect to spend over £500 more than last year.
Three quarters (74%) of consumers plan to buy presents online this December according to the research and just under a third (30%) will look to do more of their shopping on the internet than last year. When asked about shopping online, 92% of consumers agreed that cheaper deals were available on the internet, and a further 88% cited the greater choice of products available online.
Dr Steve Perry, Commercial Director at Visa Europe said:
“Shopping online is now a natural part of the gift-buying process for consumers and a key part of Christmas sales strategy for retailers. The combination of monthly salaries being paid and people taking delivery times into consideration should combine to deliver a record day for internet shopping.
“Consumers are increasingly comfortable buying goods on the internet and clearly recognise the convenience and greater choice often available online. The fact that online card fraud fell 36% year-on-year in the first half of 2010, and the continued introduction of new security measures means consumer confidence about shopping online will only continue to grow.”
Across Europe, Visa Europe will process over 6.6 million online transactions on Monday 29th November and around €460 million will be spent on Visa cards on the internet.
On the High Street, the last Friday or Saturday before Christmas is usually the busiest shopping day but with Christmas falling on a Saturday this year, Visa Europe predicts the busiest day will actually be Thursday 23rd December.
Visa bases its predictions on up to the minute spending data and previous years’ Christmas spending trends. Over £1 in every £4 spent in the UK is on a Visa card, making this data one of the most reliable indicators of trends in consumer spending.
The Retail Bulletin is organising their 2nd Multichannel Summit, to be held in London February 2nd 2011. The event is sponsored by k3 retail and will look at how retailers can maximize profits, market share and loyalty through cost effective, seamless, integrated multichannel strategies.
If you would like to attend as either a delegate or Networking Partner, go to www.retailbulletinconferences.com/multichannel2011
