New Zealand consumers spent $4.2 billion online last year, a 16 per cent increase on 2017, according to the latest e-commerce report from NZ Post.

This compares to just 2 per cent annual growth in bricks-and-mortar shopping, the postie said in a statement released last week.

The rise in spending was driven by Kiwis shopping online more often, with consumers hitting the ‘buy’ button 22 times each.

Last year also saw the emergence of ‘super shoppers’ – with nearly 10 per cent of the 1.8 million Kiwis who shopped online last year spending over $9000.

The report found that spending with New Zealand online stores grew nearly twice as fast as spending with international online stores, though roughly a third of the dollars consumers spent online in 2018 overall went overseas.

Around 12 per cent of online shoppers used buy now pay later methods, such as Afterpay, last year – with younger users and women being the majority of users.

The most prominent online shoppers in New Zealand are women aged between 30 and 45 who live in rural areas, NZ Post found.

“NZ Post is delivering well over half of all parcels bought online in New Zealand and we’re proud to be integral to that moment of joy when your online shopping parcel arrives,” Bryan Dobson, NZ Post’s chief marketing officer, said.