Chase Paymentech started to count the customers' spendings

Chase Paymentech online payment processor, a business unit of JPMorgan Chase, has announced the launch of 2008 Cyber Holiday Pulse Index. The Index, an annual measurement of online shopping activity during the holiday season, tracks e-commerce spending activity across a sample of leading e-retailers. The measurement reflects the number of transactions and dollar value crossing Chase Paymentech's global processing platforms. 

"This will be a very interesting year to watch the Pulse Index. The conventional wisdom holds that holiday spending will be depressed for many reasons. The economy is weak, discretionary spending is down and the shopping season is a week shorter this year as Thanksgiving is late. However, recent analyst reports indicate that e-commerce may actually be trending ahead of last year. The Pulse Index will give some insight into whether the conventional wisdom is accurate or not," said Mike Duffy, President of Chase Paymentech. 

A report by Forrester Research, "Outlook for US Online Holiday Sales, 2008," (October 21, 2008), forecasts "online holiday shopping spend will increase by a humble 12% over 2007 [as] consumers seek value and savings online more than ever." That prediction will be tested by this year's Pulse Index. 

Chase Paymentech provides payment processing services to more than half of Internet Retailer's list of the 500 largest e-commerce companies. The Pulse Index tracks 25 of the top 150 e-commerce merchants, representing a large and diverse field of e-retailers for this holiday shopping season.