We’re buying Boxing Day hype
Boxing Day transactions once again suggest Kiwis do not wait for sales to shop.
On the Friday before Christmas this year, shoppers around the country spent almost $300 million – more than double what they spent on Boxing Day.
But more of us are beginning to buy into the Boxing Day hype, with sales totalling $139m on Tuesday, according to Paymark.
This was an increase of 6.4 per cent on 2016.
Department stores, appliance stores and home decorating shops had the biggest increases, while clothing shops suffered in Auckland but did better in some regions.
West Coast, Marlborough and Wairarapa topped the spending increases by region.
Paymark spokesman Paul Brislen said Boxing Day bargain-hunters were buying big-ticket items. The average price of purchases was $55.50.
Year-on-year growth for Boxing Day spending was remarkable, he said. It proved that brick and mortar retail stores had not yet been written off by online shopping.
But he was fascinated by the decrease in sales for clothing retailers. That could be a direct result of online shopping stealing sales, he said.
Paymark has more than 100,000 electronic pay terminals in New Zealand stores. Its figures do not include online shopping spending.
Brislen said if they did, Boxing Day spending would have been astonishing, but he could not put a number on it.
‘‘I would not even know where to begin.’’
Friday was an ‘‘absolutely huge’’ day for retail, but that was expected because Christmas day fell on a Monday this year, he said.
He said he was not surprised that spending in the days before Christmas trumped Boxing Day sales.
‘‘That has been standard procedure as long as we have had spending data. Christmas day is the big deadline.’’