Food, Flowers and Gifts for Mum prove popular

Food, Flowers and Gifts for Mum prove popular this Mother's Day

The latest figures from Paymark indicate that Kiwis around the country preferred to seek out restaurants and gift stores to spoil mums and show how much they care on Mothers Day.

Kiwis spent a total of $52,225,786 through the Paymark network at restaurants on Mothers Day and the preceding week this year, an increase of 10.4 percent on the Mothers Day period in 2009. Similarly, gift stores also benefited with a total of $11,891,398 being spent, an increase of 10% on the same period last year

When it comes to the big day itself, florists sold on average 13 percent more this Mothers Day than last year, suggesting a late rush for desperate sons and daughters keen to show how much they value their mum. However, for the eight days in total (i.e. Sunday, 2nd June to Sunday, 9th June) florists were only up a modest 2.9 percent on the same period last year, albeit an increase on declining sales trends in the category.

Not every gift traditionally associated with Mothers Day appears to have been favoured though, with longer lasting, more permanent gift options such as jewellery and books or cards down this Mothers Day. Bookshops were down 5.7 percent on the same eight days last year, and jewellery outlets were also down 5 percent in the value of transactions processed across the Paymark network.

More than $85 million was spent in the categories traditionally associated with Mothers Day on the day and preceding week, up 8.5 percent on last year, so it would appear that Kiwis really did make an effort to say how much they care, says Simon Tong, Paymark CEO.

Whilst spending associated with Mothers Day was up, the entire month of April saw the value of Paymark transactions increase by 3.6 percent (a return to the modest growth rates experienced prior to March 2010) whilst the number of card transactions was 5.5 percent higher than a year ago.

The fastest growth rates in terms of transaction volumes were measured in Gisborne (up 8 percent), South Canterbury 7 percent) and Otago (6 percent). The slowest growth regions were Marlborough (3 percent) and Canterbury (2 percent).

Paymark processes more than three quarters of all in store electronic transactions in New Zealand. That puts New Zealand ahead of any other country in the world in terms of EFTPOS use.

ENDS

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