Online spending jumps 31%
Covid-19 restrictions may have eased but New Zealanders continue to shop up a storm online, with NZ Post reporting yet another surge in spending.
According to its latest eCommerce Spotlight report, online shopping for the first quarter of 2022 was up 31 per cent on the previous year, and a massive 86 per cent on the same quarter in 2020, before the first Covid-19 restrictions were introduced.
NZ Post general manager of business marketing, Chris Wong, said Covid-19 has changed the way New Zealanders shop, for good.
‘‘New Zealanders spent more than $2.2 billion online on physical goods during the first quarter of 2022, making nearly 17 million online transactions, and spending about $131 per transaction,’’ he said.
‘‘This is the second-biggest quarter for online shopping for total spend in New Zealand, second only to the busy Christmas shopping season at the end of last year.’’
The Omicron outbreak had been a big factor in consumer shopping in the first quarter of this year, with more people at home, either unwell or isolating, Wong said. However, while online shopping for the quarter as a whole was up, the number of shoppers had declined during the quarter, as month by month fewer people shopped online.
’’While in January there were nearly 2.2 million shoppers online, this dropped to 1.98 million in February and then dropped by another 200,000 in March,’’ Wong said. ‘‘The slight decline throughout the quarter could be due to a number of factors, including the increasing cost of living facing New Zealanders.’’
Ongoing disruptions to global supply chains meant New Zealanders continued to favour buying local products and 77% of spending in the most recent quarter was with New Zealand businesses.
As part of a 10-year plan for investment in parcel processing infrastructure and technology, NZ Post is upgrading its Christchurch processing centre and will open a ‘‘super depot’’ in Wellington later this year.
Together the projects will double its parcel processing capacity.