Shoppers not spending this Christmas

Photo / Chris Skelton

The first three days of December started off with a countrywide shopping boom, however the following 18 have not been as kind to retailers.

The figures are contained in a report by Paymark, which processes more than 75 per cent of electronic transactions in New Zealand.

Kiwis spent a total of more than $3 billion at shops around the country during the first 21 days of December - a growth in value of 3.8 per cent on last year.

This was lower than the 4.6 per cent trend across both October and November.

In terms of volume, 57,723,941 transactions were processed through Paymark's network between December 1 and 21 - an increase of 3.4 per cent year-on-year.

Wet weather during the last full weekend before Christmas (Friday December 17 to Sunday, December 19) - put a damper on the shopping spirit, with the value of sales down 0.8 per cent on last year.

Paymark chief executive Simon Tong said the data reinforced the continuing trend of caution among shoppers.

"Retailers are still having a tough time of it and while we have seen an increase in sales over the last few months, it's important to note that the increases have been very mixed across sectors," he said.

Paymark said it had also noticed a pattern in the way people shopped, with Kiwis preferring to use their own money over reaching for their credit card.

During the first 21 days of December shopping Eftpos spending was up 5.3 per cent while credit was only up 2 per cent.

Paymark said that small toy shop sales were up 12 per cent while sales at the large, general retail stores were up 3.5 per cent.

Kiwis can also expect to see a lot of books and specialty food items under their trees this year, with these sectors experiencing growth of 5 per cent and 18 per cent respectively.

Also doing well against last year were general food stores, up 5.4 per cent), fast food outlets (up 9.6 per cent) and auto repairs (up 6 per cent).

Those sectors on a bit of a 'go-slow' included the previously well-performing footwear category (up 2.9 per cent), furniture stores (up 3.6 per cent), and jewellery/watch stores (up 0.3 per cent), Paymark said.

Sectors not faring as well when compared to last year included music shops (down 20.1 per cent), garden centres (down 5.1 per cent) and camera/photography shops (down 4.8 per cent).

Tong said that there were many reasons for the mixed spending patterns.

"This Christmas has been affected by a number of factors; big sales and heavy discounting starting earlier in the year, bad weather on the last shopping weekend prior to Christmas, restraint in spending on luxury and big-ticket items and perhaps a general feeling of keeping things a bit more subdued than in the past," he said.

- NZ Herald staff