NZ Black Friday spending figures highlight tight budgets

The Black Friday weekend provided mixed results for Kiwi retailers. according to payment network Worldline. Photo / Dragoscondrea, 123RF

Payment network Worldline says Black Friday weekend was busy for Kiwi retailers, but patterns were mixed across the country.

Overall spending was comparable to last year, with $175.6m spent at core retail merchants excluding hospitality, food and liquor retailers.

“This total virtually equals the spend for Black Friday weekend in November 2023, adjusting for the usual shifts in merchants coming and going from Worldline NZ’s payments network,” Worldline said today.

Worldline chief sales officer Bruce Proffit said transaction numbers were up 2.8% but the value per transaction was down 2.8% to $83.50.

“Black Friday was clearly a big deal for retailers this year. The number of transactions jumped 17% between the previous three-day weekend and the Black Friday weekend,” he said.

Proffitt said the average transaction size increased from the previous weekend’s $79.80 in spite of widespread discounting.

But the size of the overall spend was a reminder that budgets were still tight, he said.

“There were big increases in some of the smaller regions, which were coming off low bases, and a small increase in Wellington and Waikato, but declines in the other two major regions, Auckland/Northland and in Canterbury.”