Online retail climbs 11 per cent and soars in November
Kiwis once again let their fingers do the walking for online goodies in the lead-up to Christmas.
The indicative figures from BNZ and retail consultancy Marketview estimate that online retail sales rose a healthy 11 per cent last year on 2016, and jumped 13 per cent in the month of November on a year earlier.
But provisional December figures indicate online shopping lost a bit of steam as Christmas got closer.
Online spending was about 6 per cent higher on the same month in 2016, well down than the 13 per cent and 9 per cent growth rates of the previous two months.
The good news for local retailers were signs domestic online spending was catching up on the runaway growth of their offshore rivals.
For some time the lack of New Zealand sites and the novelty of overseas goods saw Kiwis spending many of their online dollars offshore, but Marketview’s Gary Baker says that trend has begun to turn around.
In 2017, there was a jump of 10 per cent in spending on local sites, and 12 per cent internationally.
Indeed in December, domestic sites had the edge – up provisional 7 per cent year on year, compared to 4 per cent on international sites.
But Baker said it was a little early to call that a trend, as many people did their buying from international sites in November to ensure items arrived in time for Christmas.
Spending on overseas sites was especially strong in November, particularly in electronics, which Baker said possibly reflected greater awareness of international retail events like Black Friday and Singles Day.
Growth rates were also always likely to fall as the amount of spending grew.
‘‘Because your total’s getting bigger and bigger.’’
He’d also noticed local retailers upping the ante in subtle ways, such as bookstores offering one half-price book for a full-price book.
That kind of discount made it cost-effective with something like Britain’s The Book Depository, he said.
‘‘Deals like that were making it quite compelling for me to buy locally.’’
Domestic websites also tended to do well in certain categories such as food and furniture, items that would not normally be imported.
According to BNZ’s estimates, online spending from New Zealand reached $4.1 billion in total last year, with $2.6b spent domestically and $1.8b offshore.