Retailers brace for record spend-up
Paymark predicts new transaction high will be set as families get busy with cards
Shoppers are arming themselves with Eftpos cards and flat shoes while retailers gear up for what’s forecast to be the busiest shopping day of the year. Just three days out from Christmas, we are now officially in “spend mode”, says Paymark’s Paul Brislen, who predicts we will see a new record of transactions per second set today as desperate shoppers flock to stores for last-minute gifts.
Traffic recorded through electronic payments company Paymark has already hit 160-170 transactions per second this week.
Last year, transaction numbers peaked on Christmas Eve at 177 transactions per second.
During the week ending December 17 this year, Paymark recorded $1.445 billion in transactions nationwide. That was up 5.8 per cent on the same week the year before.
And last year Kiwis spent almost $6b in electronic card transactions in December alone, up 6.6 per cent from the previous year. Speaking to the Herald at Auckland’s biggest mall yesterday afternoon, the most common word shoppers used to describe their experience was “stressful”.
Strewn with enough Christmas trees and baubles to put the North Pole to shame, Sylvia Park Shopping Centre was heaving with shoppers clutching armfuls of bags.
Shop owners said stock had been flying off the shelves and workers were dealing with more frazzled customers as each day passed.
Armed with an impressively fulllooking shopping trolley, Melissa McLean said she was aiming for a one-hit wonder.
“We’ve got one day to shop and we’ve got to get everything for the whole family. Usually I would do it online but I’ve left everything to the last minute so I’ve had to come into the shops.”
McLean said she was looking forward to getting it over and done with, calling the process “expensive and stressful”.
Walker and Hall store manager Naveen Kumar said it was an interesting time, with plenty of new faces coming in to buy pieces to win over their sweetheart.
“We don’t see them the whole year but then they just walk in and walk around the shop with a photo of something, they’re often like, ‘That’s what they want’.”
The heat and the crowds were wearing down Aucklander Ane Pulu, who headed to Sylvia Park yesterday morning with her brother Vili.
She had hoped to beat the rush but later wished she had hit the beach instead of the shops.
“We’ve just started and it’s pretty crazy. Crowded, heaps of sales,” she said. “After this we’ll probably do icecream or probably just head to the beach.”
Several retail workers agreed the sunshine was luring punters outside.
Paper Plus floor manager Gail Woodward expected lots of people were stalling, with the assumption they could get it all done over the weekend.
“It’s the weather, this absolutely amazing weather. It makes people want to linger outside, eat, and they think, ‘Oh I’ve got plenty of time’.”