Please find attached the latest BNZ and Marketview monthly report on New Zealand’s Online Retail Sales.
HIGHLIGHTS
A strong month, with total online retail spending by New Zealanders in April up16% on April last year.
Online spending at local merchants was up 14% on April last year, well ahead of the 7% annual growth rate for sales at physical stores (based on Statistics NZ figures for electronic
card transactions for core retail excluding hospitality).
o Clothing and Food purchases (including “Other Specialised Food”) have been key contributors to higher spending over
the past 12 months, responsible for approximately 60% of the increase in online spending at local merchants since April
last year.
o Online spending at local Computer, Department and Entertainment Media stores has also grown strongly.
Online spending at offshore sites was up 19% on April last year. Part of this growth will reflect higher offshore prices in NZ dollar terms. Computer and Entertainment Media stores
again featured strongly.
Comparing with latest figures reported in Statistics New Zealand’s RTS, the $3.4 billion in online retail spending
(excl. GST) for the 12 months ended 31 March 2016 was equivalent to 6.9% of reported retail sales, for the categories we
cover.
o If we exclude the grocery and liquor sectors from both the RTS and our Index, annual online spending is equivalent to
10.3% of officially reported retail sales.
ENDS