JPMorgan Chase Card Payments Set Record During Cyber Weekend

J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. set a new daily record for processing card payments during last month’s Cyber Weekend, one sign that shoppers are willing to spend a little bit more this holiday season than they might have planned, even as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to spread.

J.P. Morgan data from Cyber Weekend — Black Friday through Cyber Monday — shows that payments peaked at levels that are 50% higher than the average 2021 day, and in-store transactions were higher than 2019 levels. Online shopping continues to be the primary option for many consumers, even as more stores are open than during the last holiday season.

American Express Co. Chief Financial Officer Jeff Campbell said last week that consumer retail spending is up 30% this quarter compared to before the start of the pandemic. J.P. Morgan’s volumes for November were up double-digit percentages from 2019 and 2020.

Many merchants tried to attract shoppers earlier in November this year rather than having them wait until Black Friday, which led to higher volumes across the entire month rather than having it isolated to a single weekend, according to J.P. Morgan data.

J.P. Morgan’s merchant-services group handled about $1.6 trillion in payments last year.

Related news: Black Friday Retail Results Show Buy Now, Pay Later Gaining Ground

PYMNTS data from Black Friday shows that shoppers continue to embrace buy now, pay later (BNPL) options at the point of checkout — either at the registers at brick-and-mortar locations or through virtual carts.

A low to mid-single-digit percentage point segment of the more than 2,000 consumers PYMNTS surveyed said they used BNPL for their Black Friday purchases. In-store, 5.6% of consumers used BNPL this year, up from 3.6% in 2020.

BNPL also grabbed an 8.9% share of payment activity in 2021, up from 3.7% last year. Most providers saw more use in-store at the physical point of sale, although Afterpay and Klarna were dominated by online purchases by several percentage points.

BNPL spending in the U.S. has increased 230% in the past year, according to Afterpay, with a 34% increase this holiday season compared to last year. There has been a 30% year-over-year increase of people using its BNPL offerings, the company said.