Black Friday has Hawke's Bay pumping with $6.1m in sales in one day

Shoppers spent a record amount during last week's Black Friday sales. Photo / File

Hawke's Bay consumers are taking to the Black Friday shopping experience like never before, this year making more than $6.1 million-worth of electronic transactions in a day.

The latest data from Paymark, which processes more than 75 per cent of all credit and debit card transactions, shows 130,000 transactions were made in Hawke's Bay last Friday.

That marked an 8.8 per cent rise in volume from Black Friday last year.

Overall value rose by more that $700,000 to $6.1m and Hastings City Business Association general manager Susan McDade said she was not surprised at the numbers, given the city centre had been "absolutely pumping".

"Basically our retailers reported really good transactions. Although not everyone was doing a Black Friday sale, the flow-on effect of just people being in that shopping frame of mind really definitely had a boost for the high-street retailers.

"Farmers had quite a large two-day sale and that generated a very busy day for them, and when Farmers has a sale, obviously that helps the other retailers around that area, so it was absolutely pumping in town.

"I think probably the big winners were probably in electronics, Black Friday is really about the Christmas present trade, so a lot of your larger-ticket items around the $100 to $200 range of presents, rather than the small things."

Black Friday is the informal name for the day following Thanksgiving Day in the United States, the fourth Thursday of November. It is historically the US's busiest shopping day of the year.

Black Friday was taken up by New Zealand retailers relatively recently, with The Warehouse, Noel Leeming and Harvey Norman offering Black Friday sales for the past two years.

For retailers in Napier in particular, where the day coincided with a cruise ship visit, it was the best yet.

"Black Friday was significantly larger in Napier CBD this year than ever before, both from a participating retailer perspective, as well as a shopper perspective" Napier City Business Inc. manager Zoe Barnes said.

"It also helped there was a cruise ship in that day so many passengers went back to the boat loaded with purchases. It was actually a bit of a welcome surprise how big it had become in the CBD.

"It appears in general it is the chain stores that get behind this promotion the most effectively, Farmers had a huge store-wide sale on, Michael Hill and Cotton On had significant savings on the day - amongst many others.

"I would assume Black Friday is gaining traction in New Zealand due to its proximity to Christmas - it's the perfect time to start getting yourself organised for the big day or to buy yourself something early.

"From a retailer perspective it's a good shot in the arm for the festive season purchasing which is often left to the last week, so it gets stock moving and people into town shopping and thinking earlier, which extends the shopping season slightly further than normal.

"We look forward to this event growing year on year in Napier CBD."