The government needs to provide more clarity on what is deemed as essential goods that could be sold online, according to Retail NZ.
Chief executive Greg Harford said although essential items can be sold online, there are few details as to which goods are classified as essential.
"Government hasn't defined essential goods and there is no firm clarity around that and there is a lot of confusion in the market," Harford said.
For now, Harford has encouraged his members to be prudent about what they are selling and make sensible decisions.
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Advertise with NZME.He also said, click and collect delivery has been stopped for now.
"Retailers are selling some things deemed essential goods as a contactless delivery but they do not have provision for click and collect," he said.
MBIE has been approached for comment.
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MBIE data from May 2020 revealed that during the level 4 lockdown, from the total of 1,125,000 essential workers only about 668,000 were able to work either from the site or from home.
The construction industry had taken the biggest hit as virtually no one of about 250,000 workers being able to work during level 4 lockdown. But about 100,000 of them would be able to return back to work during level 3 lockdown, the report showed.
The largest number of essential workers in the list of 19 categories are from the health care and social assistance sector.
The data showed from a total of about 250,000 essential health and social assistance workers, only 150,000 of them would be able to come to work during level 3 and 4 lockdown. The remainder is either, not being able to work or having to work from home.
The gender comparison from the same data set also showed that there were slightly more females who were able to return to work during level 4 lockdown but in level 3 number of males exceeded by a little.
During level 3 about 100,000 Māori workers were able to go to work while the number was half for the pacific people. A similar comparison was seen in Level 4, but with a reduced number, about 80,000 Māori could go to work and about only 40,000 pacific people.
