In the lead up to Sinterklaas, consumers bought far more from online stores than last year. The Dutch Payments Association estimates this based on payment data from last week. Online stores have generated five times higher turnover in the past seven days than in the same period last year.
Compared to a normal week this year, online stores performed much better in the week before Sinterklaas. Transactions witnessed an increase of 15 per cent and the volume of business increased by a fifth of what it was in a normal week this year. The Payments Association looked at PIN numbers from the Wordline transaction processor and from the owner of iDeal Currence.
It was the busiest day in online stores after another deal festival, Cyber Monday, last Wednesday.
Pin 760 times per second
Physical stores were also busy in the days before Sinterklaas and the total turnover of debit cards was compared to last year. From Tuesday to Saturday, more than 98 million debit card payments were made, a good value for sales of up to 2.5 billion euros. The numbers were largely comparable to last year.
Yesterday was the busiest time for debit card payments. At 12:00 there were 760 teeth per second. The busiest moment of the past year was the Saturday before Sinterklaas, on November 27. Then at 3pm there were 750 pins per second.
Tonight is evening, yesterday Sint and Pete already prepared in Eindhoven for the shopping center visit and home visits:
