Spending habits are changing with Kiwis spending more on Black Friday than Boxing Day

Friday, 27 December 2019

New Zealand shoppers spent $100 million more on Black Friday than Boxing Day in 2019.

New Zealanders spent $149.8m on Boxing Day, traditionally one of New Zealand's busiest shopping days, according to eftpos provider Paymark.

This was a 3.9 per cent increase on last year, but the shopping numbers paled in comparison to the $253m spent on Black Friday, just a month earlier.

Spending over the six weeks leading into Christmas Day was up 4.6 per cent on 2018, with Kiwis clocking up $8.88 billion in shopping across all retailers.

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Spending growth was highest outside the major centres, including Marlborough, which saw a 13.3 per cent increase, Wanganui with an 11.5 per cent increase and the Wairarapa with a 11.2 per cent rise in sales.

Spending growth was moderate in Northland/Auckland with a 1.5 per cent rise but 0.8 per cent down in Otago and 3.2 per cent down on the West Coast.

First Retail chief executive Chris Wilkinson said December was a good month for retail, but there were signs that traditional habits were beginning to shift.

Boxing Day was busy but shoppers spent more on Black Friday.

Spending was more dispersed, with more retailers offering Black Friday sales, he said.

First Retail NZ chief executive Chris Wilkinson says Black Friday has become increasingly popular.

'This has been an evolving trend,' he said.

'More retailers jumped on board with Black Friday. In the past it was just the big retailers who could maximise it but this year we saw everyone jumping on board, including supermarkets.'

This shift in shopping habits was mirrored across Australasia at the moment, he said.

'It was a very slow start for stores [on Thursday]. In the past you had queues lining up outside stores for Boxing Day sales, but there wasn't as much of that yesterday,' he said.

For core retailers, excluding food and hospitality retailers, this year's Boxing Day results depended on the particular market they operated in.

Underlying spending for the key group of merchants was 0.4 per cent below Boxing Day last year.

Spending was up for the likes of sport equipment retailers, up 5.6 per cent, and hardware stores saw a 6.6 per cent increase but clothing and footwear stores saw a 7.6 per cent decline in sales from 2018.

Liquor stores were the big winners with a 14.2 per cent increase in spending on Boxing day, followed by supermarkets that saw a 5.1 per cent increase in spending from the same day last year.

Wilkinson said the weather also had an impact as many kiwis took advantage of the sun to enjoy leisure time after a volatile December.

Looking forward, retailers would continue to try and maximise that early start over the next few years, Wilkinson said.

If Australian trends were anything to go by, stores will also try to maintain shoppers' interest past Christmas by offering big, blanket 'one day only' Boxing Day sales, he said.