Kiwis’ Online Shopping Spree

Kiwis’ Online Shopping Spree

• 1.9 million New Zealanders shopping online spent $3.8 billion

• $1.3 billion spent on sites based overseas

Auckland, New Zealand (1 July 2014) – There are now 1.9 million New Zealanders shopping online, 56 percent of the total online population. Nielsen’s latest online retail report has found the number of people shopping online increased by over 100,000, growth of six percent in the last year.

Nielsen, the leading global provider of information and insights, said New Zealanders spent $3.8 billion shopping online and expect this to reach $4.15 billion by the end of 2014.

Tony Boyte, Research Director, Nielsen added, “Kiwis have well and truly embraced internet shopping. The number of items each person is buying is increasing at a rapid rate. Nearly half a million Kiwis each made 11 or more purchases on the internet last year, an increase of 58 percent in the last two years”

$1.3 billion is spent by New Zealanders on websites based overseas, with USA, Australia and the UK being the most popular. 34 percent of the total amount Kiwis spent shopping online is spent overseas, an increase from 26 percent the previous year and double that of 2010.

The most popular products and services are airline tickets with 44 percent of online shoppers purchasing from this category, followed by clothing/shoes/accessories (40%), books/magazines (35%), entertainment tickets (26%) and travel related services such as accommodation and car hire (25%).

Boyte summarises, “Consumers shop online for convenience, which includes being able to compare products and prices. It’s a trend that will continue to grow and with this, spend will increase substantially. A considerable proportion of spend will continue to go off-shore but the opportunity remains for New Zealand retailers to take advantage of growth in the online retail space”.

Full release with charts: Nielsen__Kiwis_Online_Shopping_Spree__1_July_2014.pdf

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