Successful Christmas business for Swiss retailers
Published: Wednesday, Dec 27th 2023, 12:20
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Despite inflation, consumers in Switzerland spent more money on Christmas gifts in 2023 than in previous years. Cashless payments reached a record level in the run-up to Christmas.
Rising prices have not had a negative impact on this year's Christmas business. On the contrary: from December 1 to 24, Swiss retailers earned more from cashless payments than ever before. This is according to an analysis by the news agency AWP based on data from Monitoring Consumption Switzerland going back to 2019.
Overall, Swiss retailers recorded 3% more sales with credit, debit and mobile payments in the run-up to Christmas than in the previous year. Compared to 2021, the increase was even 13 percent.
Sales figures on December 24 were significantly lower than in previous years because Christmas Eve was on a Sunday. However, customers simply did their Christmas shopping earlier than usual. They spent the most money on December 22 and 23.
Smartphone in demand as a means of payment
A strikingly high number of Christmas gifts were paid for via smartphone: sales through mobile payments increased by more than half compared to the previous year. Overall, the mobile share of all cashless payments from December 1 to 24, 2023 was over 12%. In 2022, the share was still significantly lower at 8%.
Monitoring Consumption includes all payments that are transferred directly from customers' bank accounts via smartphone apps such as Twint, Alipay and WeChat Pay under mobile payment. However, payments via Google Pay, Samsung Pay and Apple Pay are not included in this category because they are processed via a credit card.
Store visits back in fashion after the pandemic
As with this year's Black Friday, customers once again increasingly pulled out their credit cards in stores for Christmas shopping. In the week leading up to Christmas, the proportion of all credit card payments at the point of sale was over 90%, which was significantly higher than in previous years.
Christmas sales remain the most important sales driver for the Swiss retail trade. The month of December, and in particular the week before Christmas, always sees the highest sales figures.
The data from Monitoring Consumption Switzerland includes cashless payments that are processed via the network of the financial services provider Worldline in Switzerland. They are made available to the public for research purposes. Cash payments are not included in the statistics. For data protection reasons, no absolute figures are shown.
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