"Black Friday" and "Cyber Monday' are figments of the media's imagination. Truth is: last Thursday was the hottest day for online shopping and last Friday was the hottest overall shopping day. Online purchases made with VISA-branded cards peaked on Thursday, December 1st, hitting $575 million, a 41% increase over the same day in 2004. The figure topped Monday's so-called "Cyber Monday" by more than $75 million. For the week, E-commerce spending on VISA-branded cards exceeded $3.2 billion. Meanwhile, VISA also reported that total activity on its cards in the USA for last Friday, December 2nd, was $4.02 billion, compared to $3.91 billion for Friday, November 28th. Spending on all VISA-branded payment cards during the week ending December 4th reached $25.1 billion, a 13.9% increase over the same period in 2004. Spending (sales volume) on VISA cards during the holiday season (Oct. 31 & Dec. 4) increased to nearly $113.5 billion, a 16.3% growth over the same period in 2004. Gains were seen in nearly all retail categories during the week led by Home & Garden (14.2%), Discount/Mass/Drug Stores (9.9%), Specialty Retail/Gift/Hobby (8.9%) and Personal Entertainment (8.1%).
| VISA RETAIL SEGMENTS |
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| (Nov 28-Dec 4) |
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| Home & Garden | +14% |
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| Discount | +10% |
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| Specialty | + 9% |
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| Entertainment | + 8% |
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| Department | + 5% |
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| Source: VISA SpendTrak |
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