HD TV sales are set to decline claims Mastercard who recently released the results of their SpendingPulse service, they also claimed that the consumer electronics category fell year-over-year in September, following modest declines in the previous months.
MasterCard’s SpendingPulse service — which is based on the credit card giant’s record of purchases showed that same-store sales had declined 2%, after forecasting growth in mid-September.
Initally analysts had speculated that HDTV sales would sag as economic forecasts turned grim, but sales had continued to hold up todate. As the downturn continues, though, customers are becoming wary about spending on luxuries like HD television, analysts say.
Mastercard have also revealed that nearly one-third of affluent debit-card holders do not regularly use their cards for purchases, according to their Debit and Payment Choices Study. “Debit has evolved from a niche product to one that serves the mass market; that means that to drive usage, issuers must employ different strategies for distinct segments. Understanding how issuers’ products and cardholders compare to those of their competitors has become vital to building competitive advantage,” says Greg Howes, a Global Solutions Leader with Advisors.
Among the study’s findings is that debit usage peaked among cardholders with a household income of $50,000 to $75,000 annually. But the highest-income bracket-those above $75,000 household income-remains somewhat untapped: the study found that 31 percent of affluent debit cardholders do not regularly use their debit cards for purchases. So, while debit has successfully penetrated the mass-market, there remains significant potential in this segment.
The study also found that rewards programs had a positive influence on debit card usage. On average, it found that cardholders not enrolled in a rewards program used their debit cards for 30 percent of their total monthly spending; by contrast, cardholders who received rewards for their debit purchases racked up 36 percent of total monthly spend on their cards. Furthermore, the study identified the types of purchases most and least frequently made with debit cards, as well as indicating those store and product categories where collaboration between issuer and merchant, and the development of incentive programs, could increase debit usage.
