Bay shoppers spending more in lead up to Christmas

Christmas shopping has been slow for some retailers in New Zealand but Bay of Plenty shoppers are still spending up plenty.

Figures released today for the first seven days of December has been slow with spending through the Paymark network showing that although spending has increased by 4.9 per cent, it is well below last year's growth rate of 8.6 per cent for the same period.

However, for the month of November Bay shoppers spent $287.8 million - 4.5 per cent more than in November last year.

This translated to 5.97m transactions - an increase of 6.6 per cent.

Nationally, spending increased by 5.2 per cent from November 2013.

Paymark's head of customer relations, Mark Spicer said: "many people have yet to start their Christmas shopping and we anticipate that over the next few weeks, spending will significantly increase."

"It's also important to take into account the dynamic nature of retail when comparing our figures with 2013. Competition between bricks and mortar stores and online retailers is just one of the factors that could affect what we're seeing in terms of both volume and value of sales."

Growth in the hardware, building and garden supply sectors continued to grow - up 8.6 per cent on last year.

Spending in the accommodation sector during November was up 13.6 per cent with food and beverage spending up 12 per cent on last November.