New Data Analysis Finds American Express, VISA, MasterCard, DISCOVER Card Use Varies Dramatically across the USA

LOWELL, Mass., Aug. 22, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Litle & Co. (www.litle.com), a leading payment processing company for consumer-direct brands, today released a state-by-state spend map of major card usage that reveals valuable payments intelligence. The spend map (based on average daily spend per capita), analyzed nearly 20 million direct response transactions driven by television infomercials and home shopping networks, catalog call centers and online marketing programs in Q1 2012. Based on the analysis Litle found that:

When looking at average daily spend per capita:

• Wyoming, Alaska, Hawaii, and Nevada were the most active states for direct response spending
• Oregon, Indiana, Tennessee, and Michigan were the least active

When looking at card usage by order count comparing all card types:

• The proportion of orders paid for with American Express was highest on the West Coast and in the Northeast
• DISCOVER Card orders were proportionately higher in the Midwest
• MasterCard payments were proportionately higher in the Midwest and South  
• The proportion of orders paid for with Visa was highest in the West
• There were pronounced differences in regional use of pre-paid Visa and MasterCard cards compared to traditional credit cards 

"Analyzing the payments data of our own merchant base we are able to identify trends such as these," said Bala Janakiraman, vice president of customer value at Litle. "Creating these spend maps reveals valuable payments intelligence and insights many retailers don't even realize they have, which can be used to supercharge customer marketing and to influence other business decisions including media buying. For example, our spend maps depict that lower population-density states and regions – where brick-and-mortar retailers are fewer and further between – are more likely to favor direct response purchasing.  This intelligence can be used to corroborate media planning for direct response marketers."

For the complete list, an infographic illustrating these findings at the county level and Litle's full analysis, visit: http://www.litle.com/blog/industry-trends/us-direct-response-payments-analysis

About Litle & Co. 

Litle & Co. is the payment processing and intelligence engine behind leading ecommerce and consumer-direct brands, including Overstock.com, Ancestry.com, Gilt Groupe, Guthy-Renker, ShopNBC and Wayfair.com. An authority in card-not-present payments, transaction processing and merchant services, Litle & Co. powers the payment processing engines for leading brands that sell directly to consumers through multichannel and Internet retail, online services, subscription-membership models and direct response marketing. The company is committed to creating customer success through Voice of the Customer initiatives, including Net Promoter Score (NPS), and won 2010 and 2011 Stevie® Awards for eCommerce Customer Service and Product and Service Innovation respectively. To learn more about Litle & Co. visit http://www.litle.com or call 1-800-548-5326. Twitter: @LitleCo LinkedIn: http://linkd.in/HehTRP

SOURCE Litle & Co.