Spending down on last year

The latest numbers from the company that processes more than three-quarters of the electronic transactions in stores do not bode well for retailers.

People have spent $2.7 billion across the Paymark network so far in December in 51 million transactions.

Last year, people spent more than $4 billion through the network in the weeks before Christmas.

Transaction volumes are up 5 per cent on last year but this is only
half of what the company expected to see normally in terms of year-on-year growth, said Paul Whiston, Paymark's head of sales and customer relations.

He said the decline in the value of goods paid for on the network clearly illustrated that consumer purchasing habits had been hit hard by the downturn.

- NZPA