26 November 2012 – Monday 10th December is set to be the busiest day ever for online shopping across Europe, according to analysis by Visa Europe, who predict that 10 million transactions will take place on Mega Monday. The payments technology company expects more than €565 million to be spent online by consumers with their Visa cards, the majority (80%) of which will be spent on debit cards.

Shoppers will spend an average of almost €400,000 every minute, with transactions forecast to peak between the hours of 20.00 and 21.00 GMT. Visa Europe’s processing platform is predicted to handle around 7,000 transactions every minute as consumers across Europe seek out this Christmas’ must-have presents and attempt to benefit from online bargains and beat the Christmas shopping crowds.

Dr Steve Perry, Commercial Director at Visa Europe, said: “On Mega Monday this year we are predicting a 20% rise on 2011 and for the first time we expect to process 10 million online transactions across Europe in a single day. We are seeing consumers increasingly turn to the internet to make purchases and this reflects the confidence that shoppers feel about the security of using their Visa cards for online transactions, particularly where they’ve been Verified by Visa. The volume of transactions we process on a daily basis, as well as our historical trend data, provide us with an incredible insight into consumer spending patterns.”

The busiest high-street shopping day often falls two days before Christmas Day. The weekend of 22nd -23rd December will be a key time for many consumers to make last minute purchases, with Visa Europe predicting Saturday 22 December to be the busiest day for shopping on the high-street across Europe.

Visa bases its predictions on up to the minute spending data and previous years’ Christmas spending trends. Over €1 in every €7 spent in Europe is on a Visa card, making this data one of the most reliable indicators of trends in consumer spending.

In Europe, there are 460 million Visa debit, credit and commercial cards. In the 12 months ending June 2012 those cards were used to make purchases and cash withdrawals to the value of €1.8 trillion. 14% of consumer spending at the point of sale in Europe is with a Visa card, and almost 80% of that is on Visa debit cards.