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An extra day of point-of-sale spending before Christmas

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With two days to go until Christmas, debit and credit card turnover at points of sale in the week ending Sunday 22 December had already matched the same week in 2018. Christmas fell one weekday later than the previous year, creating an extra day of point-of-sale spending.

Family shops together at a festively decorated stall, while parents and child browse winter gifts in a busy market setting.

Just under 1,000 transactions per second

In the week before Christmas, consumers had already made almost 15% more card payments than in a normal week. The difference was expected to grow further during the final two days before Christmas. Almost 20 million card payments were recorded on Saturday 21 December, with a peak of 975 transactions per second at around 4.15 pm.

Chart showing a peak of 975 card transactions per second before Christmas 2019

Christmas trees and camels

In the week before Christmas, consumers made more payments particularly for jewellery and books and at department stores. Christmas markets probably contributed to more than 50% more transactions than usual among market and street traders. Purchases of animals and plants rose by more than 42%. This was probably due to the sale of large numbers of Christmas trees, poinsettias and amaryllises, although we cannot rule out that more reindeer, camels, donkeys, oxen and lambs were sold too ;-).

Online payments with iDEAL and credit cards

Between Monday 16 and Sunday 22 December, consumers made roughly 20% more online payments with iDEAL and credit cards than in both the same period a year earlier and a normal week in 2019, spending a total of approximately €1.65 billion. Friday 20 December was the busiest online shopping day before Christmas, with more than 3.6 million transactions using the two payment methods, 47% more than on a normal Friday. An average of around 70 transactions per second was recorded over the course of the day.

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