Record-Breaking Black Friday For eBay's PayPal 115
adeelarshad82 writes "eBay's PayPal division reported that PayPal processed 20 percent more transactions on Black Friday compared to last year. PayPal didn't release the total payment volume, but claimed that its Payflow Gateway system processes nearly a quarter of e-commerce, while its direct sales numbers reflect 12 percent of all e-commerce. In general, reports from a number of e-tailers and retailers indicated that consumers spent more on Black Friday than in 2008, when the United States was in the midst of a recession. However, it's still unclear whether shoppers bought more on Black Friday, when they could expect a discount on what usually is one of the busiest days in the holiday season, or whether the pattern will continue. In 2008, shoppers stopped buying in early December, a shock that the US economy felt well into 2009."
How did your Black Friday turn out? Did you wait in endless lines and contribute to the trampling deaths of fellow shoppers, sit at home and help take down your favorite online retailer's servers, or eschew the process altogether?
Online things, and from non-us point of view (Score:5, Interesting)
We don't have "Black Friday" here, but I noticed Steam has also been having five-day-long every-day-new-games [steampowered.com] discount on games, usually ranging as 33-75% discount. Since they actually have good games there on sale, with a good percentage off, it's been leading me and many of my friends to buy the games that look interesting now. People have been buying those LucasArts and THQ Complete Packs and many single games (I bought Borderlands, City of Heroes and LucasArts pack last night) Since PayPal also processes purchases for Steam, some of the increase probably comes from it too - there are hundred thousands players buying those games now.
I didn't buy more because I didn't even know about the special day. But I bought when I saw the discounts. I'm a lazy guy so I wouldn't go fighting in stores anyway (and I hate all that crowd), but these discounts surely lead to some impulse buying on Steam. And it still continues for a few days, oh man.
Brick and mortar? nope... online? yep! (Score:5, Interesting)
I went to ZERO stores. I spent all my money online. I got deals from newegg that worst buy and the others could not touch even after shipping. Plus I did not have to stand in line for hours to get a chance as a cupon to buy a item, or elbow idiots in the face to stop crushing my wife. 4 years ago was the LAST time we went to a store on Black friday. She suffered 2 broken ribs and I had to physically assault 10 people to protect her from more harm.
I'm never going into a store for a black friday thing ever again, I can get better deals, save more, and do it in comfort away from the mobs of morons that lose all social ettiquette like not crushing people for some stupid shiny.
Better than being with the lemmings ... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Brick and mortar? nope... online? yep! (Score:4, Interesting)
I agree. I was up early and on a whim went to the local Walmart to check out this "Black Friday" phenomenon. It was a ridiculous mess of rude people and massive lines. I got a coffee and went home, and calculated that most of the deals at Newegg are exactly the same and sometimes cheaper, minus the long lines and degrading experience. In any case, it'd be worth it to spend some extra money to AVOID Black Friday crowds.
It was a fascinating experience but I won't do it again.
OK, for those not in the know. (Score:5, Interesting)
"Black Friday" is the Friday after Thanksgiving in the U.S. Thanksgiving is always the last Thursday in November. It is "Black" because retailers throughout the country count on the Christmas shopping season for the majority of their yearly profits. In other words, it is the day beginning the season when they hope to bring themselves "into the Black" (on an accounting sheet "Red" ink is used to indicate money owed, "Black" ink to indicate money made). If a retailer is "in the Red" they owe their suppliers more than they've taken in. If they are "in the Black" they have made a profit.
As far as why it is important? IT ISN'T. Not anymore. Whether or not retailers have a "good year" is now irrellevant to the U.S. economy. I've been carefully watching what is for sale in stores and almost none of it is manufactured in the U.S. So buying a bunch of stuff made in other countries (especially using further consumer debt) will do absolutely ZERO to improve the U.S. economy. Everyone should refuse to buy anything this year except for necesseties. If you want to give gifts for the spirit of the season, buy only locally made goods and services. Here are some suggestions:
ANY of the above are 100% guaranteed to be better for the U.S. economy. If everyone did one of the above, the economy would be 100% back on its feet in no time flat.
Why Me... (Score:5, Interesting)
PayPal processed 20 percent more transactions on Black Friday compared to last year.
I didn't buy anything this black friday, not even online. But I can certainly see how paypal's volume would be up - so many credit card issuer's are screwing themselves by jacking up the fees now that it makes more sense to use paypal to transfer directly from your checking account than it does to use a credit card.
The fee that pushed me over the edge are these new "foreign transaction fees" - not "foreign currency exchange fees" but simply "foreign transaction fees" - almost all the major banks are charging a couple of percent for any transaction even vaguely outside the local borders. I bought two things on ebay via paypal but with my credit card - the transactions were back to back on my statement and one of them had a ~$1 extra tacked on for this "foreign transaction fee" because the seller was in canada - even though the statement showed identical entries for the merchant field (paypal, there address in california and their phone number in california). Even though the auction and payment was in US dollars and through paypal - Bank of America slammed me with this ridiculous fee on one charge but not the other. The next week I purchased an online game subscription in us dollars, but apparently the parent company is in germany so wham another 50 cent fee out of nowhere.
When you can't tell at the point of sale what the total cost will be, then that is a huge incentive to move to a different method of payment where the costs are known up front. Dumbass Bank of America has lost the revenue from ~$1000 worth of monthly online purchases but they nailed me for just under $2 in abusrdist fees, hope it was worth it!
(And when I called to register a complaint, the dumbass service representative spent 15 minutes trying to convince me that the government has made these new fees mandatory and that it wasn't BoA's fault (which is utter bullshit, confirmed on sites like the consumerist and bankrate), when all I wanted him to do was write down that I was unhappy about the fees because there was no way to know up front if the fee would apply or not)
Re:Why Me... (Score:4, Interesting)
Banks have received government bailout money (coming ultimately from taxpayers) and have engaged in a huge program of bumping rates and fees recently to squeeze money from cardholders. It's a total farce.
I've fallen behind on my credit card payments since I've lost my job, and I plan to go through bankruptcy since I have few assets and my credit is already ruined. I originally thought I could pay the debt back, but now I'm filled with a desire to punish the banks. How else can I hurt them except by defaulting on my debt?
Re:Why Me... (Score:3, Interesting)
Paypal has foreign transaction fees [paypal.com] too. $0.30 + nearly 4%. I found out about this the hard way because I sold a high-value item to someone that had a Florida address, but whose Paypal account was apparently linked to a foreign bank. As a result, I paid about $30 extra in Paypal fees on a hand-made item that only had about $100 in pre-fee profit as it was. (And if you're wondering, the buyer was legit: not a scam.)
As a buyer, you never see these fees (and the seller is prohibited from adding them only to international orders), but rest assured that nearly all sellers take them into consideration when pricing their merchandise if any significant percentage of their sales are foreign.