One-Third of US Shoppers Made Online Retail Purchases in December

United States consumers spent a collective $556 billion on groceries, food, retail and travel in December 2021 as they rushed to take advantage of last-minute holiday deals. This is an undeniably impressive statistic, but the real story of the season is how these consumers made those purchases — what did they buy, did they buy in store or online and how did they pay?

These are just a few of the key questions explored in the January 2022 U.S. edition of Digital Economy Payments: How U.S. Shoppers Paid During The Holiday Season. In this report, PYMNTS provides an overview of how U.S. consumers spent the final shopping days of the year. We surveyed 3,300 U.S. consumers between December 2 and December 14 about their most recent purchases to learn what 2021’s holiday shopping season can teach us about the retail landscape in 2022.

More key findings from our latest research include the following:

Only 14% of consumers made travel-related purchases in December — but that 14% spent $381 billion on travel that month, alone. Each of these travelers spent an average of $66 more on their travel purchases in December than in November.

Fifty-seven percent of consumers reported using PayPal, Venmo and Zelle to make peer-to-peer (P2P) payments. Each of these P2P users sent $199 in P2P payments in December alone, with Venmo being the most commonly used P2P platform of all.

Nearly one quarter of consumers who fell victim to payments fraud in December did not realize it for at least a week. Only 38% of fraud victims learned they had fallen victim to fraud the same day it occurred.

These key findings merely scratch the surface of a much more complex story about how consumers’ shopping preferences continue to evolve alongside the increasingly dynamic digital economy. Digital Economy Payments: How U.S. Shoppers Paid During The Holiday Season delivers the details on how consumers shopped in late 2021, and what it means for retailers looking to win their business in 2022.

To learn more about how consumers paid during the holiday season, download the report.