The Sezzle Inc (ASX: SZL) share price has started the week on a very positive note.
In morning trade the buy now pay later platform provider's shares are up almost 6% to $2.47.
Why is the Sezzle share price racing higher?
Hot on the heels of the Afterpay Limited (ASX: APT) Black Friday/Cyber Monday update last week, Sezzle released its own sales update for the period this morning.
According to the release, the company performed very strongly over the four days.
Sezzle added over 36,000 new active customers, representing a significant acceleration versus the 8,000 new active customers the company attracted during the four-day shopping period in 2018.
Furthermore, Sezzle experienced a massive increase in underlying merchant sales during the four days. Its sales increased by 402% on the prior corresponding period to US$11.3 million.
This compares very favourably with its underlying merchant sales of US$157.5 million during the 12 months to September 30 2019.
Credit card use is on the decline.
Management believes the declining use of credit cards for retail purchases was a key tailwind for the company during the Black Friday and Cyber Monday period. It notes that credit card usage continued to decline during this year's sales event.
It quoted a survey of 2000 consumers by PYMNTS which showed that instore use of credit cards by shoppers for payments declined from 50.2% of shoppers in 2018 to 49.3% this year.
Furthermore, credit card usage for online purchases fell at an even quicker rate. That fell from 66.4% of shoppers in 2018 to 54.3% in 2019. The use of cash as a payment method also dropped from 39.3% to 36.3%.
Sezzle's Executive Chairman and CEO, Charlie Youakim, said: "The strong Black Friday / Cyber Monday sales have provided a very favorable backdrop for Sezzle's December Quarter. We enjoyed very robust new customer additions for just four days of sales, and the UMS of US$11.3m during this brief sales frenzy equates to more than 7% of Sezzle's UMS in the entire last four quarters."
"The decline in the use of credit cards and heavy utilization of mobile phones during the iconic BF/CM sales event provides further compelling evidence of the growing preference by consumers for alternative payment methods such as Sezzle," he concluded.
