According to a report by Nielsen NZ, online shopping has been embraced by mainstream New Zealand, with close to two million adults making a purchase via the internet in the last year.

Digital consumers are purchasing more items online (more than nine per cent year on year) and spend approximately 21 per cent more.

New Zealanders now buy 18.2 million items online per annum to the value of $4.6 billion. Spend is expected to reach $4.8 billion by the end of 2015.

Tony Boyte, research director for Nielsen NZ said, “While the growth of new online shoppers has slowed, those already online shopping are hooked. For the first time, those who purchased six or more items each year make up half of all online shoppers, up from 38 per cent in 2010.”

The amount spent by New Zealanders on overseas websites is estimated at $1.6 billion. Two-thirds of online shoppers have made a purchase from an overseas website in the last three months, up from 61 per cent in 2014. More than 60 per cent of those people say that they could not find the items available on a NZ retail site.

Boyte observes, “Consumers everywhere want a good product at a good price, and the seemingly limitless options available in a virtual environment provide new opportunities for both merchants and consumers.”

The number of New Zealanders buying flights and travel services such as accommodation and car hire has grown and is the leading category for online shopping.

Fashion, such as clothing, shoes and accessories is most popular outside of travel. Books declined in the last year from the third most popular category to fifth.

Event tickets, music, consumer electronics, games and consoles, sports equipment, flowers, insurance, home appliances and alcohol saw strong growth in the last year.

Trade Me leads online retailers with nearly 2 million monthly visitors to its site. The Warehouse, in second place at 871,000 had strong growth year on year. The top five is completed with GrabOne (648,000), Amazon (638,000) and Air New Zealand (577,000). Trade  Me followed by The Warehouse lead online retailers.