The week ending April 12, 2015 was a strong week of retail, which featured a busy Easter Monday for both consumers and merchants, according to BNZ’s MarketView report.

Easter Monday shopping was a large factor in the week’s overall positive figure. When compared to the same Monday last year (April 7, which was a regular Monday) spending was up 15.2 per cent and the volume of transactions was up 13.8 per cent.

On a slightly negative note, Easter Monday didn’t have such an impact when comparing to last year’s Easter break. Spending on Easter Monday 2015 was up just 0.9 per cent on last year’s Easter Monday.

Over the four day Easter weekend, spending fell 1.9 per cent this year. A weak Easter Saturday was the sole contributor to the negative result.

Storetypes with the largest rises in spending this week were sports and camping equipment, up 25.1 per cent; recorded music, up 22.2 per cent; and furniture and flooring, 13 per cent.

The holiday Easter Monday drove some consumer spending to storetypes that wouldn’t generally see activity on Mondays. Footwear retailers, clothing and

department stores experienced rises in spending of 12.4 per cent, 7.5 per cent and 6.8 per cent, respectively for the week. These increases rose to 49.4 per cent, 43.4 per cent and 141.3 per cent on Easter Monday (when compared to the same Monday last year).