Spending in the first week of December peaked over $800 million as Kiwis cashed in on remaining Black Friday deals. Photo / 123rf
Spending in the first week of December peaked over $800 million as Kiwis cashed in on remaining Black Friday deals. Photo / 123rf
Spending in the first week of December grew to $818 million as Kiwis stocked up and cashed in on remaining Black Friday deals.
Wordline NZ’s payments network shows consumer spending processed through all core retail merchants (excluding hospitality) was up by 3.8% compared tothe same week last year.
Spending in the first seven days of December was up the strongest on last year in Hawke’s Bay, up by 9.1%, equivalent to $31.6m.
The region was followed by Wairarapa (+8.8%), Gisborne (+7.6%), Otago (+6.9%) and South Canterbury (+6.9%).
Elsewhere, the lowest spending growth was in Palmerston North, which only grew by 0.4%.
In New Zealand’s largest cities, spending in Auckland grew by 3.5% for the first week of December compared to last year, while Wellington and Christchurch (Canterbury) grew by 0.7% and 3.8% respectively.
Hawke's Bay had the strongest increase in spending over the first seven days of December. Photo / Paul Taylor
Wordline NZ’s chief sales officer Bruce Proffit said that the data will be encouraging for retailers after several months of consumer spending trending below year-ago levels.
“It’s notable that spending in the seven days to Saturday, December 7, which caught some of the extended run of the Black Friday sales, was both higher (+1.2) than the last seven days of November – which included Black Friday itself – and higher than the first seven days of December last year,” Proffit said.
Proffit said that an increase in spending on the last week of November was due to a step up in food and liquor purchases and that most other merchants had a decline post-Black Friday.
“Traditionally, spending will continue to increase as we move closer to Christmas Day and consumers stock up, with the peak likely to be on Christmas Eve for the food and liquor shops, based on the 2019 pattern when Christmas Day was also a Wednesday.”
Spending on Christmas Eve alone in 2023 was more than $180m, reflecting how important the period is for retailers.
This year’s Black Friday had Kiwis spend $175.6m at core retail merchants excluding hospitality, food and liquor retailers.
Transaction numbers were up by 2.8% compared to 2023, but the value per transaction was down 2.8% to $83.50.
Tom Raynel is a multimedia business journalist for the Herald, covering small business and retail.
