First Data Black Friday report: Charged purchases increased 6.3% over last year

Atlanta -- A report released Thursday by First Data Corp., which tracks same-store consumer spending via credit, signature debit, PIN debit and EBT cards at U.S. merchant locations, found that dollar volume for the Thursday-Friday shopping period grew 6.3% over last year, and transaction growth was 7.3%.



The First Data SpendTrend analysis showed that Electronic/Appliances, Clothing and Accessory Stores, and NonStore Retailers were some of the merchant categories that saw a boost in dollar volume growth this year.



Cyber Monday continued the spending trend of the Thanksgiving weekend, with e-commerce year-over-year dollar volume growth of nearly 20%.



Aggressive promotions resulted in lower average ticket values. Overall year-over-year average ticket growth was 0.7%, while average ticket growth at Retailers declined 0.9%. Significant discounting at Electronic/Appliances stores and General Merchandise Stores (including Value Retail) were the main contributors to the lower average ticket growth within the Retail category.



Non-Retail discretionary merchants did quite well also, according to the report. Food Service/Drinking Places (including Restaurants and Quick Service Restaurants) dollar volume growth was 11.7%, versus 9.6% last year.



“The holiday spending season is off to a good solid start. Consumers definitely responded to the early openings and discount prices on Black Friday.” said Silvio Tavares, senior VP and division manager of First Data Global Information and Analytics Solutions, which publishes SpendTrend. “We continued to see strong momentum through Cyber Monday.”