It was announced by Bank of Ireland today that a record number of 12.38 million transactions occurred, across payment channels including online, point of sale and ATMs on Black Friday alone.
On Cyber Monday, an additional 11.9 million transactions was recorded making one of the busiest retailing days of the year, a 10% increase on Bank of Ireland’s statistics for last year.
Transaction volume was up around 15% versus Black Friday last year. Analysing when activity was most active, mobile payments saw peak demand between 8am and 11am but spiked again at lunchtime and remained busy through most of the day.
Meanwhile, Bank of Ireland’s online banking service 365 online and Business On Line, which is used by business customers, both observed peak demand between 9am and 1pm.
The figures show that ATM transactions reduced by over 11% from 2016, with customers favouring contactless payments to speed-up their waiting times in queues. There was a significant increase in point of sale transactions with a jump of nearly one-third.
Speaking this week, Group Chief Operating Officer at Bank Ireland, Lewis Love said, "Our Black Friday and Cyber Monday figures demonstrate that customers are favouring purchasing their Christmas presents and big ticket items on the biggest retailing weekend of the year. Clearly this popular shopping weekend is gathering momentum, with more and more consumers jumping online and hitting the shops. Contactless usage has significantly increased point of sale usage figures this year and we expect this trajectory to continue into the future."
Source: www.businessworld.ie
