Tills look set to quieten on Christmas Eve after a record breaking lead up
There is still some fuel left in the tanks for shoppers, but Paymark is expecting a drop in electronic transaction
volumes on Christmas Eve.
Momentum has been building through the week with shoppers clearly focussed on getting the most out of the last few days
before Christmas. Electronic transaction volumes for the last three days are as follows:
• Thursday 21 December 3,055,258
• Friday 22 December 3,262,903
• Saturday 23 December 3,010,800
Record ever volumes were first set on Thursday 21st and then broken on Friday 22nd - the busiest day of the festive
season to date - with nearly 3.3 million transactions, worth $197 million. At its peak the Paymark network was
processing 99.5 transactions per second and 320,000 transactions an hour.
The overall increase in electronic transaction volumes for the year continued over the last few days prior to Christmas
at around 7 percent.
“Shoppers have left their run late this year, taking advantage of the weekend to fill up the last of the stockings,”
says Simon Tong, Chief Executive Officer, Paymark. “Predictably both Friday and Saturday were incredibly busy for
retailers, and there will be little rest before preparing for the Boxing Day sales, which have become part of Kiwi
retail culture.”
The Paymark network accounts for around 80 percent of all electronic transactions (debit, credit, online) in New Zealand
and more than 60% of total retail sales. Even at the record volumes, of the last few days the Paymark network was
running at only 29% of capacity.
Ends.