Merchants report big decline in debit/credit card volume amid COVID-19

One-quarter of all merchants experienced a drop of more than 56% in April card volume as compared to February, according to data released by The Strawhecker Group, the largest global analytics and consulting firm focused on the payments acceptance industry.

The firm analyzed more than one million credit card accepting businesses in the United States. It rates Georgia as state with the best potential to snapback from COVID, followed by Texas and Ohio.

“When viewed in totality, the drop of card volume is staggering,” said Mike Strawhecker, president of TSG. “But it gets even more informative as you dissect the data by industry and geography. For example, half of the retail merchants in California lost at least 51% of their card volume when comparing April to February. For comparison, half of the retailers in New York lost at least 69% of their card volume.”

The median decreases, meaning half of the card-accepting merchants in the U.S. fell below this number and half were above this number, in debit/credit card volume for all merchants in select states were as follows:

•    U.S.: -19%
•    Texas: -41%
•    Florida: -49%
•    New York: -64%
•    Ohio: -41%
•    Georgia: -38%