Buying goods and services online continues to be increasingly popular in New Zealand.
Online retail spending in April was up 11%, a healthy increase over the same month a year ago.
"We are seeing spending increase both online and on the high street. It paints a pretty good picture of New Zealand consumer confidence." Stephen Bridle of Marketview who compiled the data.
Online buying from both domestic and international merchants grew faster in April than March, with 60% of all transactions being with local merchants. Year-on-year growth in April was +8% and +17% respectively for the domestic / international split.
Although growing impressively, online still only represents 6.1% of the total $2.8 billion in annual retail spending. Excluding the big local grocery component, online spending is equivalent to 9.5% of traditional retail sales.
This data is from the monthly BNZ Online Retail Sales Report which uses Marketview analysis who has an 11 year history of analysing and categorising New Zealand spending data. The index is compiled from millions of non-cash transactions involving hundreds of thousands of people.
The online growth rate has slowed in recent years but remains much higher than that for traditional sales.
Traditional retail sales in the March quarter were up by 3.2% on the same quarter a year earlier.
Over the past 12 months, online sales have been growing at around $27 mln per month, on average but now well shy of the growth rate to the end of April 2013 of $33 mln per month (or $39 mln per month in the year to April 2012).
Online retail sales
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