Consumer spending lifts as pre-Christmas shopping season approaches

Auckland — 08 / 11 / 2024

Consumer spending across New Zealand lifted slightly overall in October, ahead of the traditional busy pre-Christmas spend, but spending patterns remained mixed within sectors and around the regions.

Asian woman looking at her phone as she's in a festive environment with shopping bags

Data released by Worldline NZ today shows consumer spending through Core Retail merchants (excluding Hospitality) in its payments network reached $3.09B in October 2024, up a slight 0.3% from October 2023.

Worldline NZ’s Chief Sales Officer, Bruce Proffit, says this will be a welcome change for retailers following annual declines averaging -1.6% over the previous six months.

“While this upward shift is positive, especially with the strong final week of October, the figures do need to be put into perspective. The growth rate is low and is in part due to the fall of days in the month - and there remain mixed results across merchant groups,” says Proffit.

“That said, merchants are now likely to be stocking up for the busy pre-Christmas spend in the next few weeks, so it will be interesting to see how things continue to trend. The day-by-day pattern is likely to be similar to that of 2019, when Christmas Day also fell on a Wednesday.”

Proffit notes the first milestone to watch will be the Black Friday sales that will take place around 29 November.

“In the days immediately prior to Christmas, spending in 2019 was strong from the Saturday through to the Tuesday before Christmas Day amongst the non-food stores, peaking on the Saturday. Inevitably, the grocery and alcohol spending peak came on Christmas Eve.”

Graphical of Weekly spending through Worldline

Figure 1: All Cards NZ underlying* spending through Worldline for core retail excluding Hospitality merchants in weeks ending Tuesday leading up to Christmas 2019 and 2024 (* Underlying excludes large clients moving to or from Worldline)

 

At present, the largest increases – in percentage terms – between October 2023 and October 2024 were in Whanganui (+5.4%), Waikato (+3.3%) and Wairarapa (+3.3%). Declines are still occurring in Auckland/Northland (-0.9%) and Wellington (-0.9%), and the largest annual drop remains in Southland (-5.0%).

WORLDLINE All Cards underlying* spending for CORE RETAIL less HOSPITALITY merchants for October 2024
 ValueUnderlying value*Underlying value*
RegionTransactions $millionsAnnual % change on 2023Annual % change on 2019
Auckland/Northland1,135-0.9%11.3%
Waikato2663.3%28.7%
BOP207-2.5%14.4%
Gisborne282.4%11.1%
Taranaki742.1%31.3%
Hawke's Bay1172.6%27.4%
Whanganui445.4%35.5%
Palmerston North972.1%24.0%
Wairarapa413.3%26.9%
Wellington272-0.9%12.0%
Nelson630.4%13.6%
Marlborough38-0.3%15.3%
West Coast233.0%27.1%
Canterbury3881.8%24.3%
South Canterbury54-1.7%22.8%
Otago1752.4%20.0%
Southland69-5.0%10.6%
New Zealand3,0930.3%17.2%

Figure 2: All Cards NZ underlying* spending through Worldline in October 2024 for core retail excluding hospitality merchants (* Underlying excludes large clients moving to or from Worldline)

Note to editors:

These figures reflect general market trends and should not be taken as a proxy for Worldline‘s market share or company earnings. The figures primarily reflect transactions undertaken within stores but also include some ecommerce transactions. The figures exclude transactions through Worldline undertaken by merchants outside the Core Retail sector (as defined by Statistics NZ). For more information, contact:

Brendan Boughen
T 027 839 6044
E brendan.boughen.external@worldline.com

About Worldline In New Zealand

We are New Zealand's leading payments innovator. We design, build and deliver payment solutions that help Kiwi business succeed. Whether you’re looking for in store, online or mobile payment solutions or powerful business insights, Worldline is here to help with technology backed by experience. www.worldline.co.nz

About Worldline

Worldline [Euronext: WLN] helps businesses of all shapes and sizes to accelerate their growth journey – quickly, simply, and securely. With advanced payments technology, local expertise and solutions customised for hundreds of markets and industries, Worldline powers the growth of over one million businesses around the world. Worldline generated a 4.6 billion euros revenue in 2023. worldline.com

Worldline’s corporate purpose (“raison d’être”) is to design and operate leading digital payment and transactional solutions that enable sustainable economic growth and reinforce trust and security in our societies. Worldline makes them environmentally friendly, widely accessible, and supports social transformation.

 

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