Please find attached BNZ’s latest report on the NZ Online Retail Sales.
In addition to the latest figures, the feature analysis this month takes a look at trends in online retail spending by Rural and Urban New Zealanders.
HIGHLIGHTS
MONTHLY UPDATE
• Total online spending in May 2014 was up 7% on May last year.
• Growth continues to ease – the underlying trend has now been fairly flat since February 2014.
• Online spending at domestic online sites is up 4.6% on May last year. This is slower that the 5.6% growth rate in Statistics NZ’s Electronic Card
Transactions figures (if we count similar industries), which predominantly includes physical stores.
• Online spending by New Zealanders at offshore retailers is 11% higher than May 2013.
RURAL / URBAN RESIDENTS
• Total online retail spending by rural New Zealanders has grown 20% over the 12 months to 31 March 2014, outpacing the 14% growth rate for urban residents.
• The growth in online retail shopping has been especially strong for rural kiwis buying from international retailers,
where spending has increased 27% over the year to March 2014.
• Rural residents do more of their online shopping at domestic merchants than urban shoppers do. 67% of online retail spending by rural kiwis has been at domestic merchants’ websites. For
urban shoppers, 61% of their online retail spending has been at domestic sites.
OTHER
We also include a brief summary of key differences between our online retail measure and the measure Nielsen use in
their annual survey report.