"Traditionally Kiwis have waited until a little later in the month to do their Christmas shopping but the advent of online retail means we're seeing traffic volumes increase a little earlier than has been the case in the past.
"It will be interesting to see if that trend continues in the future."
Spending volumes have been driven higher by spending on accommodation, hairdressers, restaurant and cafes, recreation and furniture and hardware.
Auckland and Northland are recorded as the strongest spending regions, while Marlborough, Otago, Southland and Gisborne are gaining traction for fastest growth.
The slowest growth in spending was seen predominantly in farming regions - Waikato, West Coast and Taranaki.
"Whether this means dairy price fluctuations are hitting the retail market in those areas or not remains to be seen but certainly in comparison with the rest of the country growth is noticeably lower, and in Taranaki we see a decline in year on year value with only a modest growth in terms of volume," Rushworth said.
Spending transactions among farm supply were down, as was travel and fuel.
Rushworth said credit card growth remains strong, increasing by 8.4 per cent.
"The vast bulk of New Zealand's retail transactions travel across Paymark's network so we have a good view of the retail sector.
"While the figures don't replace the Statistics NZ retail sales figures they are a good proxy for spending patterns in New Zealand," he said.
Total retail sales, which includes fuel and vehicle sales, edged up 0.3 percent to $4.79 billion, for an annual gain of 3.7 percent.
There were 127 million transactions on electronic cards in November, up 4.9 percent from a year earlier.
The average value of transactions was $51, with 54 percent put on to debit cards.
- with BusinessDesk
