In this week's report, covering October 12 to 18, 2020, we analyze week-over-week business activity and analyze the change in contact-free ways to pay by business category.
The CardFlight Small Business Report analyzes sales performance and emerging trends among small businesses in the United States.
The report has been featured in and/or cited by The Atlantic, Bloomberg TV, Business Insider, Digital Transactions, PaymentsJournal, PaymentsSource, and others. Sign up below to receive future report notifications right in your inbox.
Learn more about the report and our methodology.
First, we examine change in week-over-week small business performance by analyzing change in overall sales, number of transactions per business, and more.
Week-over-week sales at the small businesses in our sample fell by 2 % compared to the week of October 5 to 11, 2020.
The transaction count metric represents the total number of transactions processed by the small businesses in our sample. Last week, transaction counts decreased by 0.4%.
This metric measures all businesses who processed at least one transaction in the preceding week. The number of active merchants decreased by 0.2% last week.
The average number of transactions per active merchant decreased by 0.2% last week.
The payments industry has two broad categories for transactions based on where they occur.
The three ways US consumers typically use credit and debit cards for in-person transactions are:
We continue to see that overall growth in sales made via contactless payment methods are outpacing those made via EMV chip. While payments made via EMV chip are now up nearly 21% over their pre-COVID baseline levels, contactless payment methods are up more than 207%.
To learn more about how COVID is increasing demand for low-contact ways to pay, view the special section of this week's expanded report.
In this section of the CardFlight Small Business Report, we take a closer look at small business performance by business category.
Sales at Food and Drink businesses decreased by 1.9% last week. Transaction counts decreased by 1.5% week-over-week.
Sales at the Retail businesses in our sample increased by 6.9% week-over-week. Meanwhile, transaction counts decreased by 4.7%.
Sales at businesses in the Services category increased by 1.9% last week. Meanwhile, transaction counts decreased by 0.9%.
In this section of the report, we examine how the COVID-19 global pandemic is changing how consumers pay small businesses for their goods and services, grouped by business category.
For more data on touch-free payments, see last week's report. Learn more about the ways merchants accept touch-free payments with SwipeSimple.
First, we see how contactless transaction volume at businesses in the Food and Drink category has grown since the pre-COVID baseline of March 2–8.
The number of in-person transactions made via contactless tap-to-pay cards and devices is up 162% over the pre-COVID baseline. For comparison, transactions made via EMV chip were up just 42.3% in September (not shown).
Next, we examine how contactless transaction volume at businesses in the Retail category has grown since the pre-COVID baseline of March 2–8.
The number of in-person transactions made via contactless tap-to-pay cards and devices is up 244% over the pre-COVID baseline. For comparison, transactions made via EMV chip were down 1% in September (not shown).
Next, we examine how Invoice transaction volume at businesses in the Services category has grown since the pre-COVID baseline of March 2–8.
Transactions made via Invoices are up 104% over the pre-COVID baseline. For comparison, transactions made via EMV chip are down by 4.6% in September (not shown).
Next, we take a look at the month-over-month changes to sales, transaction counts, and number of active merchants at US small businesses. This analysis is based on "whole month" comparisons, using March 2020 as the baseline month.
Sales at the small businesses in our sample ended the month of September 5.4% below August.
Transaction counts ended the month of August 0.1% below July.
The number of active small businesses in our sample ended the month of September 1.5% below August.
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Have questions, feedback, or press inquiries? Contact us. You may also view past editions of the CardFlight Small Business Report.
The CardFlight Small Business Report is intended to provide insights into ongoing sales performance, trends, predictions, and unique analysis of US small businesses. The report has been featured in The Atlantic, Bloomberg TV, Business Insider, Digital Transactions, PaymentsJournal, PaymentsSource, and others.
The report is based on analysis of a representative sample of more than two million transactions processed by more than 65,000 small businesses who use SwipeSimple software (the signature product of CardFlight) to accept credit and debit card payments.
To create this report, we analyzed a representative sample of millions of transactions processed by:
The typical SwipeSimple merchant has one to ten employees and less than five locations or mobile service points. The average active merchant represented in this data set processes approximately $130,000 in credit/debit card payments annually. The merchants are a mix of professional and personal service providers, specialty retail establishments, and food and drink purveyors.
