Concerts and cinemas limit slippage in card spending

The scramble for concert tickets for Taylor Swift and Coldplay helped push the average spend per transaction at ticket agencies up by 88 per cent last month, according to AIB’s Spend Trend report for July, even as card spending was down overall.

Cinemas also had a bumper month as historic levels of rainfall and the releases of two blockbuster movies, Barbie and Oppenheimer, saw ticket sales more than double on the previous month. There was a 136 per cent increase in the number of transactions with spending up by 132 per cent.

AIB says the report is compiled from 70 million debit and credit card transactions in store and online during the month, giving, it says, “one of the most comprehensive and accurate data sets on consumer spending in Ireland”.

The report shows the average daily spending on cards fell by 3 per cent last month. Clothing (-10 per cent), homewares (-8 per cent) and groceries (-7 per cent) recorded the largest falls in spending.

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The decline was evident across chip and pin, contactless and digital wallet payment methods, though online payments were steady. On an annualised basis, online spending jumped 17 per cent, well ahead of inflation, the bank said.

Spending fell in all counties, with the neighbouring counties of Clare, Tipperary and Limerick reporting the sharpest slowdown at 4 per cent and Offaly and Donegal the slightest at 2 per cent.

Hotels were one of the few sectors to record an increase in spending as the school holiday season kicked off in earnest, reporting a 5 per cent increase. However, card spending on airline travel remained unchanged.

However, spending in pubs and off-licences was down by 2 per cent despite the fact that there were five weekends in the month. AIB said the fall in drink sales by card was highest in Cork (down 5 per cent). Neighbouring Kerry bucked the trend, with spending jumping 8 per cent, something the bank says was “was likely driven by Kerry’s run to the All-Ireland Football Final”.

“The impact of the wettest July on record was felt across almost all sectors last month, some more positively than others,” John Brennan, head of SME banking at AIB, said. “Cinemas fared very well, with a huge increase in spending. The strong performance by the hotel sector despite the weather is positive, as the summer months are an important time for the industry.

“The impact of inflation can be seen through the year-on-year increase in fast-food restaurant spend versus spend in restaurants and hotels, while the significant increase in spending online in July 2023 compared to July 2022 is an important trend for businesses to be aware of and responsive to, as more and more customers choose to transact digitally.”