Starting earlier, US holiday e-commerce transaction volume will surpass 2020

According to data from international financial institution ACI Worldwide Inc., the United States will usher in another strong holiday shopping season this year, and e-commerce merchants' holiday online transactions are expected to exceed transaction data from the same period last year .

ACI said the United States will see a significant increase in transaction volume between Thanksgiving and Cyber ​​Monday this year , with e-commerce sales expected to increase 23% compared to the same period in 2020.

Globally , e-commerce transactions are expected to grow 14% during the holiday shopping season from October to December 2021. The ticketing industry will see the largest year-on-year growth in transaction volume , which is expected to increase by more than four times, while the tourism industry is expected to more than double, while the communications and gaming industries will grow by 11% and 7%, respectively .

While it is expected that e-commerce transaction volume in the United States this shopping season will be higher than in 2020 , ACI data also shows that consumers started their holiday shopping activities earlier this year , with global e-commerce transaction volume in September this year increasing by 6% compared with the same period in 2020 .

ACI said a key factor driving the growth in September transaction volume was that merchants offered offers and discounts earlier than in previous years to promote early shopping, giving them greater flexibility to address supply chain challenges .

Debbie Guerra, director of merchant payments at ACI, also mentioned that this year's US holiday shopping season began in September, and consumers were looking for gifts and discounted items early on.

In fact, the early start of the 2021 holiday shopping season is good news for U.S. e-commerce merchants , as U.S. e-commerce experienced the slowest sales growth since the first quarter of 2018 in the second quarter of this year .

In addition, other sectors that ACI expects to show strong growth include online purchase , offline pickup services , which are expected to increase by as much as 98% during this year's holiday shopping season compared to the same period last year .

When it comes to payment methods, buy now, pay later ( BNPL) remains popular among U.S. consumers. According to ACI data, BNPL transactions more than quadrupled in the first half of 2021 compared to the same period last year. BNPL also has the highest acceptance rate (98% on average, compared to 96% for credit / debit cards ), and its upward trend continues.

In this regard, Guerrà said that the surge in online purchases of high-value goods (such as home electronics) has, to a certain extent, driven the popularity of BNPL , and merchants who offer this payment method will have a great opportunity to attract new customers and improve the shopping experience of existing customers.

Speaking of this, I wonder whether my colleagues in the cross-border e-commerce field in China support or provide BNPL services for buyers . This is indeed a development trend in the future and is worth considering.

operations

Cross-border e-commerce market

Payment