Barclaycard reports higher in-store transactions, more contactless payments

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Jun 23, 2020

Barclaycard saw payments rising last week as stores began to reopen with 6% growth in the value of transactions compared to the previous week and 8% growth in their volume. When looking at payments taken in physical shops specifically, the value of transactions rose by 12%.

Small and medium-sized businesses saw a 12% increase in the total volume of transactions, and a 9% rise in the total value processed.

It all suggests the recovery has started but that spending is a long way away from normal levels. 

But that’s perhaps no surprise. Last week’s weather was grim and while shops in England were able to reopen from June 15, the company also said that the week only saw a 12% increase in shops returning to trading compared to the week before.

Additionally, spending has been rising steadily in recent weeks. The company, which processes nearly 40% of all transactions in the UK, said it has seen 60% growth in the number of Barclaycard customers who’ve gradually returned to trading and taking payments by last week, compared to the first full week of April,  further highlighting just how much spending fell at the height of the lockdown.

With many consumers taking advantage of their first opportunity to shop for the non-essential items they’d been missing during lockdown, the firm also saw an increase in contactless transactions. Barclaycard Payments processed 10% more contactless transactions than the week before.

Since the introduction of the new £45 contactless limit in the UK, it has processed almost 40.7 million contactless transactions above the previous limit of £30. The total value of these new contactless transactions above £30 is over £1.4 billion.

Rob Cameron, CEO of Barclaycard Payments, said: “It’s extremely heartening to witness the spike in activity that took place last week, and with some retailers still to open some or all of their stores, we expect sales volumes to continue to rise over the coming weeks.”