Spending flurry in lead-up to Xmas

Time to sort out your Christmas shopping.

Hawke's Bay shoppers have become "conditioned" to wait for Christmas sales, says a spokesperson for the Hastings Business Association.

Not everyone is prepared to wait, however.

Data released by Paymark for November showed a 3.9 per cent increase in transactions, up from the same time last year. There were 2.61 million eftpos transactions through the Paymark network in the region.

Spending value had also increased for the month of November this year by 2.2 per cent, with shoppers spending $121.4 million in the area.

Hastings Business Association general manager Susan McDade said public spending patterns had become "shorter, more intense".

"It has been a slower start this year to the Christmas spending but last week was the first real push," she said.

"I know that a couple of the bigger retailers I have spoken to have noticed quite a sudden jump in spending, so I think the trend is that people are waiting longer before they start their Christmas spending.

"Retail sales are starting to condition people to wait until a lot of the retailers have got sales on, which typically occur in the last three weeks before Christmas. This trend has really conditioned the public to wait instead of getting their shopping done early.

"Quite often they have a perception of things going to go on sale closer to the time."

Ms McDade said businesses in the region should look forward to a profitable Christmas.

"Retail spending in itself has strengthened," he said.

"Consumer confidence seems to be going up and people are getting a little bit freer with how they spend.

"We are not going to be getting back to the levels we were at before the recession hit - people are still cautious of that but they are definitely looking at making some more major purchases over the summer period."

Paymark head of customer relations Mark Spicer said spending at a national level was slow in the first seven days of December, compared with last year.

Figures released by Paymark showed spending increased by 4.9 per cent in the first week of December but it was well below the 8.6 per cent growth rate recorded during the same time in 2013.

Mr Spicer had expected a much higher spending growth rate. "This is somewhere below what we would expect and is possibly due to a number of factors - a cooler start to the summer for one.

"It has been the coldest in a decade.

"Secondly, there is a growing trend towards shopping online instead of at traditional bricks and mortar stores and, given those two activities, coupled with lower fuel prices, we have not seen the strength in spending increase that we would expect."

Despite challenges from the online market, a substantial increase in spending was expected in the coming weeks, Mr Spicer said.

"Accommodation and spending on food and beverages are certainly areas that are benefiting and in particular food and beverages as we come into the next few weeks of December.

"You throw into that mix hardware, building and garden supplies - obviously springtime is a good time for Kiwis to get outdoors and do some DIY.

"We do anticipate Christmas spending to really kick in over the next couple of weeks." NZME.