Consumer spending increases +3.2% year-on-year, the highest rate since January 2015 Record increase in e-commerce expenditure (+12.5%), but face-to-face spending declines slightly (-1.4%) All broad spending categories see higher spending, led by Recreation & Culture (+9.3%)
• More than £2bn spent on Visa cards during Black Friday • Online Visa spend in week leading up to Black Friday up 13% year-on-year with almost £1bn spent on Black Friday, alone • Contactless and mobile technology are driving new shopping habits in the run-up to Christmas
Headline Findings •Modest increase in consumer spending in November (+1.1% on the year) •Expenditure continues to rise solidly in e-commerce (+4.1%), but declines on the high street (-1.5%) •Hotels, Restaurants & Bars, Recreation & Culture and Clothing & Footwear see strongest increases in spending during November
Black Friday: o £721m forecast to be spent online on Visa cards, peaking between 18:00 and 19:00 (the commuter hour) – spend up 17% on 2014 and 61% on 2013 o £1.19bn forecast to be spent face to face on Visa cards, peaking between 13:00 and 14:00 – spend up only 4% on 2014 but 20% on 2013 Cyber Monday: o £629m to be spent online – spend up 17% on 2014 and 45% on 2013
Headline findings:
Consumer spending increases at fastest annual rate in three months (+2.1%)Majority of spending categories see increased expenditure, led by Hotels, Bars & Restaurants and Recreation & Culture (+10% and 5.3% respectively)Renewed increase in spending on the high street as online expenditure continues to rise solidly
Kevin Jenkins, Managing Director UK & Ireland
Visa Europe is a payments technology business owned and operated by member banks and other payment service providers from 38 countries.
Visa Europe is at the heart of the payments ecosystem providing the services and infrastructure to enable millions of European consumers, businesses and governments to make electronic payments. Its members are responsible for issuing cards, signing up retailers and deciding cardholder and retailer fees. Visa Europe is also the largest transaction processor in Europe, responsible for processing more than 18 billion transactions annually.
There are more than 500m Visa cards in Europe, while €1 in every €6 spent in Europe is on a Visa card. Total expenditure on Visa cards exceeds €2 trillion annually, with €1.5 trillion spent at point-of-sale.
Visa Europe is an independent business with an exclusive, irrevocable and perpetual licence to use the Visa brand in Europe. Visa Europe works in partnership with Visa Inc. to enable global Visa payments in more than 200 countries and territories.
For more information, visit www.visaeurope.com and @VisaEuropeNews