Visa cardholders in the Dec. 19-25 week charged $2.7 billion on e-commerce transactions, up 48.4 percent from the year-ago period.
The payments franchise said 33.46 million e-commerce transactions took place in that period, up 41.3 percent from the same time in 2004.
Also, total Visa e-commerce sales for Oct. 31 to Dec. 25 surpassed $24 billion. The average ticket was $80.97.
Visa classifies e-commerce transactions as any purchases made online using a Visa card. The purchases are across segments, including retail.
Meanwhile, spending on Visa cards for mail and telephone orders also rose. Sales for the Dec. 19-25 week, at $1.24 billion, were up 16.6 percent from the year-ago period. At 15.5 million, the number of mail and phone order transactions was up 20.8 percent.
Consumers charged $12.52 billion on Visa cards for mail and phone orders from Oct. 31 to Dec. 25. The average ticket was $80.
Overall sales volume on Visa-branded payment cards reached $32.2 billion for the Dec. 19-25 week, up 26.9 percent from the year-ago period.
Visa users so far spent $232.4 billion for the Oct. 31 to Dec. 25 Christmas holiday season, an increase of 17.7 percent from the same period a year ago, according to the San Francisco-based payments franchise.
Friday Dec. 23, with a Visa card spend of $5.9 billion, ranks as the day with the highest overall sales volume for the 2005 holidays. This figure included $2.5 billion on retail spending, making that day the second busiest shopping day for retail-related charges.
Visa said retail growth was strong right through the Christmas weekend, touching nearly $13.1 billion for the Dec. 19-25 week. Department stores and apparel sales, personal entertainment charges and specialty retail, gift and hobby items spurred this surge.
Mail and phone orders accounted for 9.5 percent of total retail sales.
Six of the 10 busiest retail shopping days of the 2005 holidays fell within the Dec. 19-25 week. Black Friday Nov. 25, which was the day after Thanksgiving, was the busiest retail shopping day of the holiday season, with Visa charges of almost $2.6 billion.
