Black Friday gains NZ traction
The Christmas shopping season in New Zealand is starting earlier, as consumers gravitate towards deep discounts being offered on Black Friday.
Black Friday started in the United States, on the day after Thanksgiving, as a way of kicking off the shopping season.
But the internet is making it more of a global phenomenon.
This year it falls on November 23, closely followed by its online equivalent, Cyber Monday.
Paymark, which monitors electronic payments, said retailers were keen to get a slice of the $219 million pie that New Zealanders spent on Black Friday purchases last year.
But there were no signs that the new event was taking away from Boxing Day sales, which rose a solid 6.4 per cent last year.
‘‘It seems to be this is an addition rather than a replacement,’’ Paymark spokesman Paul Brislen said.
New Zealand Post’s general manager of marketing, Chris Wong, said the company was bracing itself for a flood of parcels following November 23, and that Black Friday in New Zealand was now a week-long event.
‘‘Black Friday is now one of the biggest single online shopping days of the year, up there with China’s Singles Day [September 11] and Cyber Monday,’’ he said.
Parcel volumes in November had jumped almost 50 per cent between 2014 and 2017, ‘‘thanks to Singles Day, Black Friday and Cyber Monday’’.
Chris Wilkinson, of First Retail Group, agreed that Black Friday was becoming one of the year’s biggest shopping days.
One reason why it might start meaning more to shoppers was that retailers were moving away from constant sales and towards ‘‘the everyday low price model’’, he said.
Boxing Day still had its place, especially for vouchers and retrospective spending, he said.
Rod Duke, of the Briscoes homeware and Rebel sports stores, said Black Friday last year had been the biggest trading day in the history of his company.
In his opinion, Boxing Day and Black Friday were serving different purposes. Boxing Day was huge for vouchers and clearing stock, while Black Friday and Cyber Monday were more about shoppers moving their Christmas shopping habits earlier.
‘‘Some people absolutely hate being in shops a week before Christmas.’’
A survey by price comparison website PriceSpy found 35 per cent of Kiwi respondents planned to buy something on Black Friday this year, and just over half of those shoppers planned to shop in a physical store.
According to the survey, the most popular Black Friday retailer was The Warehouse, where 43 per cent of shoppers planned to visit, followed by Amazon (30 per cent), JB HiFi and Noel Leeming (27 per cent), and Farmers (25 per cent)
Giant British online book store Book Depository said New Zealand was one of its top markets for book buying and the peak month for sales here was November.
Commercial director Javier Rosales said its Black Friday and Cyber Monday promotions in New Zealand last year jumped 12 per cent, and it was becoming so lucrative that the company would start its Black Friday promotion to match the New Zealand time zone.