Chase Paymentech Lauches the 2008 Pulse Index for the Holiday Season

The Pulse Index is an annual tracking of online shopping activity during the holiday season. From November through January, Chase Paymentech monitors the daily activity of 25 of the largest 150 Internet retailers. The data includes the total number of payment transactions and total dollar value processed. The data is taken from transactions crossing Chase Paymentech's global processing platform.

Pulse Index Shows Modest Gains in Transaction Growth

The early trend for this year's Pulse Index is showing that expectations for a slow year are only partially correct. Actual spending through e-commerce is up 6 percent over this period last year, compared to last year's gain of 30 percent over 2006. On the transaction side, the quantity of transactions increased 23 percent versus last year's 30 percent gain. Taken together, these trends are translating to a 13 percent lower average ticket. In other words, activity is not slowing down, but the amount being spent on every purchase is less.

“This will be a very interesting year to watch the Pulse
Index,” said Mike Duffy, President of Chase Paymentech. “The
conventional wisdom holds that holiday spending will be depressed for
many reasons. The economy is weak, discretionary spending is down and
the shopping season is a week shorter this year as Thanksgiving is
late.  However, recent analyst reports indicate that e-commerce may
actually be trending ahead of last year. The Pulse Index will give some
insight into whether the conventional wisdom is accurate or not.”

"Either people are already bargain-hunting or they are shopping in a more modest manner," said Aaron Press, Chase Paymentech's Director of Market Analysis. "Both possibilities point towards more conservative consumer behavior," he added. "It's too soon to say which of these is the more significant factor."

The Pulse Index will continue to monitor the trends and see if they extend through the holiday season.  Chase Paymentech provides payment processing services to more
than half of Internet Retailer’s list of the 500 largest e-commerce
companies. The Pulse Index tracks 25 of the top 150 e-commerce
merchants, representing a large and diverse field of e-retailers for
this holiday shopping season.

Data and charts are updated daily, with weekly commentary to explain any trends, offer historical insight and provide context. Guest commentary will be provided by Sucharita Mulpuru from Forrrester and Aaron Press, Direct of Market Analysis for Chase Paymentech.

Visit the Pulse Index every business day at 2:00 P.M. EST to see the daily numbers, or subscribe to their weekly commentary via RSS.   To do either, vist:  http://pulse.chasepaymentech.com