Boxing Day has traditionally been he country's biggest sales day. Photo / Getty Images
Boxing Day has traditionally been he country's biggest sales day. Photo / Getty Images
Despite what you may think, Boxing Day remains New Zealand's most favoured flash sales event, outstripping the ever-growing popularity of Black Friday.
Research from price comparison website PriceSpy shows almost two thirds or 65 per cent of New Zealanders made a purchase on Boxing Day last year, compared to 58per cent of Kiwis on Black Friday.
Black Friday remains the most popular shopping day for consumers in Europe, but for Kiwis it doesn't quite trump the euphoria of Boxing Day sales.
Boxing Day generally has better deals and discounts on clothes, shoes, make-up, linen and homewares, whereas Black Friday has better deals on electronics and gadgets.
PriceSpy found that almost half of the products listed on its site dropped in price on Boxing Day last year, and the average saving was 20 per cent.
The most significant Boxing Day savings came within the categories of games and consoles, speakers and headphones and home and garden goods, the data showed.
Liisa Matinvesi-Bassett, New Zealand country manager for PriceSpy, said shoppers needed to be on guard as they hit the shops this Boxing Day, as local data found almost a fifth of products increased in price on the day, with one in four items increased in price in December.
"Looking at our pricing history data for Boxing Day last year - retailers worked hard to entice shoppers in, offering rather attractive deals and discounts to encourage people to spend. And this strategy appears to have paid off, as the PriceSpy survey results revealed shoppers spent big last Boxing Day, spending an average of $871.60 each," Matinvesi-Bassett said.
"[But] as we have seen across many of the other big sale shopping days, such as Singles' Day and Black Friday, price points of some goods increase. Shoppers also need to make sure that the discounts being offered aren't being falsely advertised, as our research found one in five products increased in price in December, to then reduce on Boxing Day."
Liisa Matinvesi-Bassett, New Zealand country manager for PriceSpy. Photo / Supplied
Sixty-eight per cent of homeware and garden goods dropped in price on Boxing Day last year, along with 55 per cent of games and consoles, according to the data.
Games and consoles offered the largest average discounts on Boxing Day last year, 26 per cent, followed by 24 per cent for speakers and headphones, 20 per cent for home and garden goods, 19 per cent for mobile phones and 17 per cent for computers and accessories.
All of these products were found to offer greater savings on Boxing Day compared to Black Friday, but more products in general received a price hike on Boxing Day versus Black Friday.
Matinvesi-Bassett said Kiwis on average spent three times more on Boxing Day last year, compared to Black Friday, spending an average of $560 more on Boxing Day compared to Black Friday.
She recommends shoppers do their own research before hitting the shops.
Online searches for Boxing Day sales have steadily increased over the years - but nowhere near as fast as searches for Black Friday.
Search volume data for 2020 from Wellington-based digital agency Aro Digital shows there has been a 129 per cent increase in "Boxing Day sale" searches - up from 49.5 per cent recorded in 2019, pointing towards the trend in an increase in online shopping.
