An Overview of Holiday Shopping 2019
Have you started your holiday shopping yet? If not, time’s running out - with Thanksgiving falling later in November (the 28th) this year, holiday shoppers have nearly an entire week less of shopping time between Thanksgiving and Christmas than they did last year.
But this doesn’t seem to worry most shoppers - this year, many started shopping earlier. A lot of shoppers took advantage of Amazon Prime Week in July. Half of Americans made a purchase that week. 70% of those who purchased through Amazon included a holiday gift in their order, and 74% of those who made purchases through other online retailers also purchased a holiday gift.
Black Friday shopping revenue is predicted to be slightly less this year than last year, in part due to shoppers purchasing holiday gifts at different times of year, such as Prime Week. Consumers plan to spend an average of $738 during Cyber Weekend this year, compared to last year’s average of $803. However, Black Friday is still predicted to be the top shopping day of 2019, followed by Cyber Monday and the Saturday of Cyber Weekend.
Holiday Shopping Payment Methods
How are customers paying for all these holiday gifts? The preferred methods are debit and credit cards, as well as mobile payments. Globally, credit cards were the most popular method of payment for online shoppers in 2017, with 42% percent of survey respondents listing credit cards as their preferred payment method. In North America specifically, 34 percent of ecommerce transactions were made using a credit card, 20 percent were made with a mobile wallet, and 19 percent were made using a debit card.
Consumers are increasingly using their mobile devices for holiday shopping. In 2017, mobile order share rose to 50% on Christmas Day - the first time ever that mobile devices accounted for the majority of all purchases made.
This underlines the need for mobile payments to be quick and easy. The less friction a consumer has to encounter, the more likely they are to complete the purchasing process. This is especially important during the holiday shopping season, when a lot of shoppers give in to impulse buys.
Payments Security for Holiday Shopping
As purchase volume increases during the holiday shopping season, so do the number of fraud attempts. In 2017, online fraud attempts increased 22% during the period from Thanksgiving to Christmas. Fraud can be extremely costly to merchants - in 2018, every dollar of fraudulent transactions cost merchants $2.94. This figure underscores just how important it is for ISVs to help their merchants keep payment data secure.
In addition, a study from Chargebacks911 found that cyber-shoplifting was a factor in $19.4 billion in chargeback losses suffered by merchants. This accounted for nearly two-thirds of the total $31 billion in chargeback costs in 2017.
With the rise in e-commerce, online fraud attempts are increasing. Staying informed about the types of fraud that are currently popular, as well as how your merchants can protect themselves is key.
Newer technological advancements, such as EMV technology, make fraud more difficult, so overall fraud attempts are predicted to increase at a lower rate this year than they did in previous years.
Conclusion
With the increase in transactions during holiday shopping, ISVs and merchants must make sure their payment processing solutions are frictionless and secure. This will result in happy customers and higher revenue. We can help - contact us today.