PSCU Payments Index August 2023: A Deep Dive on Amazon Prime Day

The August 2023 edition of PSCU Payments Index reveals continued positive signs of reducing inflation, even with a marginal uptick in the Consumer Price Index (CPI-U) rate for July, along with improved consumer sentiment and ongoing resilience in purchasing growth for both credit and debit. This month’s Deep Dive highlights the annual Amazon Prime Day sales event, along with competing events from Target and Walmart. For these July events, generational differences are also highlighted in the results for each of these retailers.

Key takeaways include:

• Consumers remained resilient in July, with strong overall purchase volumes. Year-over-year growth in credit purchases was up 2.1%, while debit purchases grew 3.2%. Transaction growth continued to be stronger than growth in purchases, with credit and debit each up 4.7% in July.
• For credit and debit purchases, the largest contributor to growth in July was the Restaurant sector, with Gasoline notably offsetting both credit and debit purchase growth.
• The CPI-U increased for the first time in just over a year, rising from 3.0% to 3.2% in July. Shelter accounted for over 90% of the all-items inflationary increase. It is anticipated that the Fed could raise interest rates one more time in 2023 if sufficient inflationary cooling does not continue.
• Amazon held their annual Prime Day Sale event on July 11-12. Purchase growth was up 9.0% for credit and 3.0% for debit for the 7-day period when the sale occurred. Walmart and Target each held competing sales during the same week in 2023 with differing results. Walmart posted growth in credit purchases of 4.5% and 7.4% in debit purchases, while purchase growth at Target was down 9.3% for credit and 5.1% for debit. Amazon also announced a “Prime Big Deals Days” sale for October 2023.
• The credit card delinquency rate increased again in July and finished at 2.08%, above the July 2019 pre-pandemic level by 29 basis points. Total credit card balances were up 12.6% for July compared to a year ago, while the average credit card balance for active accounts was $2,996, up 8.2% (or $227) year over year. Notably, Americans’ credit card debt levels have surpassed $1 trillion for the first time in history, according to data released earlier this month. 

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