Online shopping leaves retailers hurting

File photo

Online shopping could could be hitting the pocket of retail outlets.

Among the responses to the latest BNZ confidence survey is a suggestion that online shopping is making the drop in retail spending worse.

It's raised the possibility that soon there could soon be no real shops - just virtual shopping.

BNZ chief economist Tony Alexander doesn't feel that will happen, but says items such as books and sporting goods are increasingly being bought online.

"Things that are easily transportable, hard to damage en-route where you can get a good idea of what it's going to look like simply by looking at the picture online, I'd expect to see this activity growing overtime," he says.

The confidence survey shows a 12 per cent drop from June in the number of people expecting the economy to get better in a year's time.

- NEWSTALK ZB