Chase Paymentech, a leading merchant acquirer and payment processor, revealed the final results of its proprietary Cyber Holiday Pulse Index, which tracked daily online shopping activity throughout the 2009 holiday shopping season. For 2009, the number of online shopping transactions soared 30 percent over 2008, while total sales volume increased 17.3 percent. The difference in these two numbers can be attributed to the decline in average ticket value, which dropped 9.8 percent.
“We were very pleased with the performance of the e-commerce sector this year. Online shopping is clearly growing in importance as a retail channel, and this year’s Pulse Index was a great way to keep an eye on this expanding piece of the retail landscape.”
The results represent a significant rebound from 2008, when sales volume for the holiday season was up a modest 4.5 percent versus 2007. And while the return to double-digit growth was a change, 2009 proved to be the second straight year of declining average tickets, following a 10 percent dip in 2008.
From early November through early January, Chase Paymentech’s pulse index measures daily transactions and purchase volume from 50 of the top U.S. retail Web merchants, as ranked by Internet Retailer magazine. In addition, the pulse index presents year-over-year trends to provide historical context on the overall metrics and identify emerging online shopping trends.
Online shopping started the season strong, and finished even stronger
Even before Thanksgiving, there were signs of strength in e-commerce, according to the pulse index. November transactions were up 26.5 percent, and sales were up 11.1 percent. Beginning on Black Friday, those growth rates surged and remained strong through the next weeks. The season was given another push upward in the final days before Christmas, with 2009 having one more shopping day than 2008. Growth rates remained high even after the holidays.
Cyber Monday, which this year fell on Nov. 30, was likely the biggest single day of the year. The strongest week for transactions and sales was the week ending Dec. 19.
Mike Duffy, president of Chase Paymentech, said, “We were very pleased with the performance of the e-commerce sector this year. Online shopping is clearly growing in importance as a retail channel, and this year’s Pulse Index was a great way to keep an eye on this expanding piece of the retail landscape.”
Chase Paymentech processes an estimated more than half of all Internet payment transactions, representing an average of 500 Internet payment transactions per second. As such, Chase Paymentech is uniquely positioned to provide and interpret this valuable e-commerce data.
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