UK consumers are set to spend £1.26bn on their Visa cards on Saturday 22nd December, making it the busiest high street shopping day of the year, according to analysis by Visa Europe. The payments giant expects to process 31.9 million transactions on this day alone.
Throughout the day, the nation’s shoppers are expected to use their Visa cards to spend over £875,000 every minute or almost £15,000 every second, with 80% of this spend set to take place on Visa debit cards. The highest volume of transactions is predicted to take place in the hour from 14.00 until 15.00.
Dr Steve Perry, Commercial Director at Visa Europe, said: “Despite a cautious start to consumer spending in the build-up to Christmas, our data shows that spending has improved slowly but surely and we expect this trend to continue over the coming weekend and right up to Christmas Eve.
“Online retailers have already seen a significant surge in sales this year with £365 million spent online on Visa cards on Mega Monday alone. We are now expecting the High Street to see its busiest day of the year on Saturday with almost £15,000 being spent every second on Visa cards in the hunt for last minute gifts for family and friends.”
Across Europe, Visa Europe will process around 50 million transactions on 22nd December and around €2.6bn will be spent on Visa cards at retailers across the continent. During Europe’s busiest shopping hour, Visa Europe expects to process more than 34,722 transactions every second.
