First Data: Retail dollar volume growth up 9% over Thanksgiving/Black Friday

Atlanta -- Year-over-year retail dollar volume growth during Thanksgiving and Black Friday was strong at 9.0%, and a significant increase compared to last year’s growth of 5.6%, according to First Data Corp.’s SpendTrend analysis, which tracks same-store consumer spending by credit, signature debit, PIN debit, EBT, closed-loop prepaid cards and checks at U.S. merchant locations.



Most of the 9.0% retail spending growth was driven by shopping on Thanksgiving as opposed to Black Friday; with 3.4% growth on Black Friday. Retail average ticket growth was healthy and strong at 3.8% versus last year’s growth of 1.9%, according to the report, as consumers opened their wallets and spent more per visit while also focusing on bigger-ticket items.



Overall transaction growth was 4.9% during the two-day period, and most of that growth again was driven by shopper foot-traffic on Thanksgiving; with Black Friday transaction growth at 2.2%. Similar to trends seen during rest of the year, shopping on credit cards experienced strong growth at 8.8%.



“In addition to promotions and early openings, we saw many retailers make it even easier for consumers to shop by providing a seamless integration of in-store, online and mobile initiatives that allowed shoppers to buy products wherever and whenever,” said Krish Mantripragada, senior VP, information and analytics solutions, First Data. “While the start of the holiday spending season was robust, merchants will continue to monitor shoppers to see if they can sustain the spending growth through the holiday season.”