NL residents did their Sinterklaas shopping early this year

Netherlands residents did a lot of their Sinterklaas shopping well before December 5 this year, possibly taking advantage of offers around Black Friday. While this past Saturday was the busiest day at the checkout of the past week, the number of card payments was not nearly as large as the Saturday after the shopping festival.

This past Saturday, two days before December 5, shoppers paid 20.3 million times with debit or credit cards at Dutch stores, spending just over 577 million euros. A week earlier, there were 21.4 million payments for an amount of 635 million euros. At that time, many retailers were still offering discounts in connection with Black Friday the day before.

According to the Dutch Payments Association, which published the figures on card payments, many shoppers also opted not to wait until the last moment to get their Sinterklaas shopping done. There were 15 percent more card payments on Thursday than on a typical Thursday. The difference between Saturday, December 3, and a regular Saturday was much smaller at 5 percent.

It is difficult to measure whether Oranje’s World Cup match this weekend influenced purchasing behavior. The Dutch Payments Association does not keep track of payment figures per hour but reports that it was busiest at the checkout at 2:15 p.m. The Dutch national team played against the United States at 4:00 p.m.

Online, Black Friday was the busiest payments day of the year. Web store Bol.com reports that shoppers weren’t more cautious with their online purchases even though inflation is high and gas and electricity have become considerably more expensive. However, the sale of Christmas lights is slower than last year.