It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas for retailers as consumer spending increases in the first seven days of December 2024, local peak body Retail NZ said.
New figures from Worldline NZ show that consumer spending across Aotearoa New Zealand was up by 3.8 per cent in the first week of December, both on the previous week and on the first seven days of December last year.
Consumer spending processed through all core retail merchants (excluding hospitality) in Worldline NZ’s payments network during the first full week of December reached $818 million.
“It’s wonderful to see that retail sales are picking up, after a tough year for many Retail NZ members,” Retail NZ CEO Carolyn Young said. “Some of the spending in early December can be attributed to continued Black Friday sales but the trend is definitely improving.
“Strong pre-Christmas sales are critical to retailers meeting their annual sales targets. We hope that New Zealanders will continue supporting their local retail businesses in the lead-up to Christmas.”
Worldline NZ chief sales officer Bruce Proffit said the lift comes after several months of consumer spending trending below year-ago levels.
“It’s notable that spending in the seven days to Saturday, December 7, which caught some of the extended run of the Black Friday sales, was both higher (up 1.2 per cent) than the last seven days of November – which included Black Friday itself – and higher than the first seven days of December last year,” Proffit said.
Proffit added that the spending increase on the same week of December last year was seen across a wide range of merchants, while the increase in spending on the last week of November was due to a step-up in food and liquor purchases, “as most other merchants saw some decline after the Black Friday rush.”
“Traditionally, spending will continue to increase as we move closer to Christmas Day and consumers stock up, with the peak likely to be on Christmas Eve for the food and liquor shops, based on the 2019 pattern when Christmas Day was also a Wednesday.”
Spending in the first seven days of December was up strongest on last year in Hawke’s Bay (up 9.1 per cent), Wairarapa (up 8.8 per cent) and Gisborne (up 7.6 per cent). The annual spending growth was lowest in Palmerston North (up 0.4 per cent), Wellington (up 0.7 per cent), Bay of Plenty (up 1.7 per cent) and Marlborough (up 1.7 per cent).