Real-time holiday spending is now available to view, giving you insight into how your fellow Americans are spending with their credit, debit, gifts cards during the holiday season.
While geared towards commerce professionals it is an eye opener for consumers. 
Holiday Insights
Launch the Holiday Insights dashboard powered by First Data, reflecting actual transaction data from millions of U.S. merchants. The dashboard will run through January 3rd. (Note: Dashboard Will Start Running in 2-3 secs)
A few highlights from early holiday shopping results include:
• Overall spending was up 6.1% Thanksgiving-Black Friday compared to last year
• Retail spending was up 6.4% Thanksgiving-Black Friday compared to last year
• Small business spending was up 5.3% Thanksgiving-Black Friday compared to last year
Spending Breakdown
The top five performing categories by transaction volume for today (Fri 12/3018):
• Retail – 61%
• Grocery- 24%
• Services – 2%
• Dining – 15%
• Hotel/Travel/Leisure – 5%
The data is extremely useful for those at the cutting edge of commerce make data-driven business decisions this holiday season.
Gen Z & Millennials
Meanwhile, about 35% of Millennials and 33% of Generation Z report an expected bump in spending, compared to 26% of Generation X and 16% of Baby Boomers.
Discover found the reasons consumers expect to spend more vary between younger and older generations. Gen Z (51%) and Millennials (40%) say higher wages will fuel increased spending, whereas Gen X (38%) and Baby Boomers (36%) will boost spending to accommodate more people on their shopping list.
