Boxing Day sales foot traffic proving strong as shoppers hit the malls

Sunday, 26 December 2021

The pandemic has driven massive change in the retail sector.

Shoppers have turned out in large numbers for the Boxing Day sales at malls around the country, giving retailers hope of ending the year on a high.

At Queensgate Shopping Centre in Lower Hutt, retailers had a busier-than-expected day.

“The Christmas holidays are always a busy period for retail, and Queensgate has been busier than usual,” regional centre manager Jan Plummer said.

Chris Wilkinson of First Retail Group said retailers saw large crowds in Wellington central city and on the Kāpiti coast, where a lot of holidaymakers had stopped in.

* Sylvia Park's $277 million The Galleria to open next month

* Boxing Day bargains lure thousands of shoppers to Christchurch malls

“It’s been very good with the weather as nice as it has been. We know the city has done well and the Kāpiti Coast has been particularly busy - Coastlands was very busy, because a lot of people headed up the coast. It’s been stronger than last Christmas.”

It was a pleasant surprise as many retailers were unsure what to expect in terms of shopper numbers.

“It’s hard to tell because it’s been such a dynamic year. With the challenges around entry and all these other aspects, it’s been a year like no other,” he said.

“We predicted people would want to spend more time with family and friends, maybe hunker back and enjoy the simpler things, but it’s been a really good day for the sector.”

Malls around the country all reported a similar resurgence in shopper numbers to pre-Covid levels.

“It's your typical boxing day,” said Shelley Jenkin, national assets manager at Kiwi Property Group, which owns malls in Auckland, Christchurch, Palmerston North and Hamilton.

“The foot traffic is very much comparable to what we have seen in recent years. It's really pleasing,” she said.

Price comparison website PriceSpy published a survey of shoppers on Christmas Day suggesting the Boxing Day sales may have slipped behind Black Friday and Black Week to lose their status as the biggest sales event of the year with fewer people planning to head to malls in search of bargains.

Whether that was true would not be known until spending data was published for Boxing Day, said Jenkin.

Sylvia Park shopping mall in Auckland was crowded as people chased bargains in the Boxing Day sales.

Kiwi Property Group had foot traffic monitoring technology in place across its malls to track the numbers of people entering its malls, so it could manage social distancing requirements.

That was showing good foot traffic at all its malls, including Sylvia Park and Lynn Mall in Auckland, Jenkin said.

Aimie Hines, spokeswoman for Retail NZ, said shop owners needed a good Boxing Day as they had a lot of ground to make up.

“It’s too early to see the numbers yet, but we would be really hopeful that people are out there spending, and shopping nicely, saying ‘hello’ and ‘thank you’ to their retail workers,” she said.

Confidence is low in all parts of the country, Westpac says.

“It's going to be critical. There was $2 billion lost from the retail sector in September alone. It's going to be a hard slog to recover.”

Christmas Eve transaction figures released by Worldline were disappointing, Hines said.

“The transaction numbers were low, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the spend was low,” she said.

Chief Executive at Heart of the City, Viv Beck in Vulcan Lane Auckland.

Boxing Day sales tended to see a lot of people head out to spend gift vouchers they received from loved ones on Christmas Day, Hines said.

The sales were no longer just an in-store, in-mall phenomenon, with retailers like offering the same discounts to people choosing to shop online.

As a result, Boxing Day sales now started on Christmas Day.

Liisa Matinvesi-Bassett, New Zealand country manager for PriceSpy said: “Boxing Day has been the largest of the big flash shopping days in New Zealand for many years, but recently we’ve seen a bit of a shift in consumer shopping behaviours.”

A survey conducted by PriceSpy revealed 36 per cent of people shopped on Boxing Day last year, down from 42 per cent the previous year.

“With popularity for Black Friday and Black Week on the rise, people are increasingly looking to buy items at discounted prices pre-Christmas, rather than waiting until after Christmas Day,” Matinvesi-Bassett

“For the first time ever, this year Black Friday may actually beat Boxing Day on the popularity scale, as people may instead choose to reconnect with friends and family after long lockdowns rather than hit the shops.“

The most popular searches on PriceSpy for Boxing Day sales were for technology with headphones, Apple AirPods and Dyson vacuums leading searches.

One retail community that’s been hard hit by lockdowns has been Auckland’s CBD, which has also been disrupted by large transport projects like the Citt Rail Link.

Vivi Beck, Heart of the City chief executive, said the CBD appeared to be enjoying a strong Boxing Day, boosted by pleasant weather.

“We've got queues in some stores. It’s looking pretty good,” Beck said.

The Commercial Bay shopping and hospitality precinct was also looking good.

“I won’t have numbers for a while yet, but it looks like the life we used to know with numbers of people around,” she said.