The Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping events have surpassed Boxing Day in sales, according to a new report.
Last year one in three New Zealanders bought something online in Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales, spending a total of $130 million, compared to under $80 million on Boxing Day, NZ Post’s The Full Download 2019 report showed.
Of this $130 million in total spend, $90 million was spent with New Zealand retailers.
This year, Black Friday (November 29) was busier than ever, with strong spending growth extending over the weekend, according to Paymark.
Paymark said spending through their network on Friday totalled $253 million, making it the second busiest day of the year, following Easter Thursday.
“For many in retail it was the busiest day,” Paymark stated.
Merchants in the core retail group excluding food and hospitality processed payments through Paymark for $71.4 million goods, a 22.5 per cent increase on Black Friday last year and surpassing Boxing Day last year ($63.8 million).
The non-food and non-hospitality core retailers saw a 42.6 per cent increase in spending through Paymark to $21 million relative to the Friday without the widespread discounting.
Department stores, clothing shops, furniture outlets, sports equipment retailers and toy and game shops experienced growth of over 60 per cent.
Paymark data also shows a 28.7 per cent rise in the volume of transactions relative to the non-sales Friday, implying a higher average transaction payment, which could result from purchases of a larger ticket item and/or of multiple items.
Over the three days of the extended shopping weekend, the total value of transactions through Paymark totalled $652 million, up 12.8 per cent in underlying terms from the Black Friday three-day weekend last year.
There were also strong increases seen in supermarkets, hairdressers and internet service providers.
According to Chris Wong, NZ Post general manager of business marketing, The Full Download 2019 report also revealed that during these occasions, they see Kiwis spending twice as much on New Zealand online stores than on international ones.
“Kiwis tend to use the opportunity of Black Friday sales to buy things like clothes and shoes as well as homewares and electronics – all those classic Kiwi Christmas presents like togs and e-readers,” Wong said. “At this time of year we see spending online on these items increase about 50 per cent.”
Wong said results shown during these shopping events pose great news for New Zealand businesses.
“Black Friday and Cyber Monday have contributed to New Zealanders spending 30 per cent more shopping online at this time of year compared to any other time,” NZ Post stated.
“Christmas occurring just one month later is a factor in Kiwis spending more online – with 44 per cent of Kiwi shoppers saying they spend more than they normally would, and 19 per cent saying they use the opportunity to ‘stock up’ with Christmas just around the corner.”
Wong said the parcel delivery side of their business is growing at a record-breaking rate year on year. Last year, over the Christmas shopping period of November and December, he said NZ Post delivered 14.5 million parcels.
“That’s almost three parcels a second. And all the signs indicate we are going to break that record again this year,” he said.
Wong said the trend of buying on local online stores could continue.
Starting December 1, all overseas online shopping will be imposed with the same GST rate that applies to local business.
“It will be interesting to see if this will impact how much Kiwis spend online domestically vs internationally in that final lead up to Christmas,” he said.
Prior to the shopping events, global comparison site Finder, which recently launched in New Zealand, revealed that in a survey of 2,216 respondents, 74 per cent of New Zealanders have expressed plans to shop on Black Friday and Cyber Monday (December 2).
