The Visa UK Christmas Spend Tracker uses card transaction data to provide a robust indicator of total consumer expenditure across all payment methods. It is based on spending on all Visa debit, credit and prepaid cards. Working with Markit, these card spending data figures are adjusted for a variety of factors such as card issuance, changing consumer preferences to pay by card rather than cash, and inflation.
Its most recent weekly report has indicated that the cold weather drove consumers to spend. Consumer spending increased 11.9% last week (26th – 2nd December) compared to the previous week (19th – 25th November). Spending on Clothing and Footwear increased 25.6% week-on-week suggesting that shoppers started to stock their winter wardrobes as temperatures plummeted, Visa explains.
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Commenting on the findings, Dr Steve Perry, Commercial Director at Visa Europe, said: “Data from Visa’s Weekly Christmas Spending Tracker showed some signs of improvement as we entered December. Temperatures plummeted, which often deters shoppers from leaving the house. However, spending data indicate an early Christmas present for clothing retailers with spending up nearly 26% compared to the previous week.
However, not all is good news. Despite the peak in consumer spending, the numbers remain lower than those of the same period last year. Compared to 2011 speinding is down -2.8% and spending averages in the past four weeks also saw a decline of less than 1%. However, as Visa Europe’s Commercial Director explains, “It is possible however that shoppers are holding out until later in the month before they make their purchases or in the hope of discounts from retailers.” We will have to wait for Visa’s next weekly report to know how much Mega Monday impacted on this week’s spending.
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