First Data Holiday SpendTrend Report Reveals Strong Growth

Recently, First Data released its Holiday 2016 SpendTrend report, which found that overall consumer spending growth increased 4.7%. Retail eCommerce transactions grew by 12% with more than one fifth (21.3%) of all holiday spending conducted online, a substantial increase from 15.4% last year.

Key highlights include:

• Retail spending increased 3.6% year-over-year, but department stores and clothing & accessories retailers took a hit. Department stores, in particular, were down 4.8% overall while clothing and accessories saw modest growth of 0.1%. Women’s ready-to-wear retailers saw a decline of 3.7% in year-over-year growth.
• Electronics and appliances saw significant growth this year, up 8.5% overall compared to being down 2.2% during the holidays last year.
• Although eCommerce spending surged this year, retail brick and mortar growth was also up slightly, posting 1.6% year-over-year growth. That growth rate was primarily driven by spending in the West and Midwest regions of the United States. The Southwest experienced a decline in growth rates as it was down 0.6% in retail spend.

For more information on the First Data Holiday 2016 SpendTrend report, including average ticket size, spending across all retail categories, and a deeper regional analysis, please visit the website.

All data referenced in the report is First Data proprietary transaction data and includes only actual card-based forms of payment. Nearly one million merchant locations across the United States were included in the analysis, which represent the number of stores open for business from October 29, 2016 through January 2, 2017 that have been serviced by First Data for at least 13 months. These locations include everything from mom-and-pop shops to large retailers, both brick-and-mortar and online.

About First Data

First Data (NYSE: FDC) is a global leader in commerce-enabling technology and solutions, serving approximately six million business locations and 4,000 financial institutions in 118 countries around the world. The company’s 24,000 owner-associates are dedicated to helping companies, from start-ups to the world’s largest corporations, conduct commerce every day by securing and processing more than 2,500 transactions per second and $1.9 trillion per year.