17 December 2019
PriceSpy data shows courageous Kiwis continue to leave gift buying to the ‘last minute’ in the hope of bag a bargain
• Almost a third of survey respondents** say they wait until a week before Christmas to do their shopping
• Historical pricing data from PriceSpy in 2018 highlights how last-minute buying can pay off, with 80 per cent of the top picked Christmas gifts costing less
to purchase on Christmas Eve, compared to a week before
• PriceSpy predicts this year’s most popular products
A new consumer omnibus survey* commissioned by the country’s biggest impartial price and product comparison site, PriceSpy, has found almost a third of plucky New Zealanders are leaving their Christmas shopping to the last week before
Christmas.
The PriceSpy survey found most (32 per cent) did their shopping up to two months in advance, however almost a third of consumers (29
per cent) leave it until the last minute. While the most-organised (six per cent) take no risks and shop up to a year in
advance.
Liisa Matinvesi-Bassett, New Zealand country manager for PriceSpy, says: “For the past couple of years, our historical click data has found many Kiwis are leaving their Christmas
shopping later and later, mirroring these survey findings. The most daring, in fact, are hanging back until Christmas
Eve to purchase last minute gifts.”
Last year, the number of online shoppers using PriceSpy started to peak from 10th December and the busiest days ahead of Christmas Day were the 19th, 22nd December and
Christmas Eve (24th). In 2017 a similar trend was also found, with traffic peaking on the 18th and 24th December.
Whilst leaving the shopping to the latest possible moment may risk late deliveries or products being out of stock, for
those willing to take the gamble, this tactic can sometimes pay off, providing shoppers with significant savings.
PriceSpy’s top picked Christmas gifts from 2018Cheapest price one week out from Christmas Eve (17th December 2018)Cheapest price on Christmas Eve (24th December 2018)Potential saving if purchased on Christmas Eve 2018Nintendo Switch$489.00$459.00$30.00Apple AirPods$223.00$218 99$4.01Sony WH-1000XM$516.29$409.90$106.39Sony PlayStation 4 Pro 1TB$505.00$499.00$6.00Samsung Galaxy S8 64GB $650.00$650.00$0.00Ultimate Ears UE Boom 2$139.00$129.00$10.00Breville Barista Express BES870$695.00$665.00$30.00NutriBullet Pro 900$88.00$85.00$3.00KitchenAid Artisan Stand Mixer 150/156$798.00$733.00$65.00Philips AquaTouch S5050$64.00$64.00$0Total$254.40
Source: PriceSpy
Liisa continues: “Looking at the top ten Christmas product predictions from 2018, our data highlights the closer you get
towards Christmas, the more money consumers can potentially save on product purchases.
Even though last minute Christmas shopping can potentially help consumers save money at an otherwise expensive time of
year, PriceSpy recommends shoppers should still plan ahead for all of their Christmas purchases.
Liisa adds: “We strongly recommend consumers use a price comparison site or app. As well as helping to save money, such
websites and apps can help ensure people aren’t paying over the odds on items that may be over-inflated in price. It’s a
fact that many products receive a bigger discount the closer we get towards Christmas. However, it’s also true that some
items receive a price hike!
“To help Kiwis get a better overall transparent shopping experience, we encourage shoppers to download the PriceSpy app and set up price alerts for the items they’re looking to buy. This will then automatically send them a push
notification when the price drops.”
Interestingly, the PriceSpy survey also found Christmas and Boxing Day are still Kiwi’s favourite shopping events of the year***, with 67% of
people saying they had purchased something at this time previously. This was followed closely by 62% who have previously
shopped in the Black Friday sales****.
Liisa concludes: “And for those struggling to find the perfect gift and need some inspiration, we’ve prepared our top
product predictions for Christmas 2019.”
Top 10 gadget predictions for Christmas 2019:
Top 10 games and consoles predictions for Christmas 2019:
Top 5 predictions for LEGO for Christmas 2019:
Notes to editor:
Source:
*The PriceSpy consumer omnibus survey in 2019 was conducted by Savanta, in October 2019, on 506 New Zealand respondents
Survey questions and responses:
**When do you tend to do most of your Christmas shopping?
Up to a year in advance 6%
Up to six months in advance 12%
Up to two months in advance 32%
Over the big sales shopping days that take place in November e.g. Black Friday 21%
Last minute (up to a week before Christmas Day) 29%
***Have you purchased anything on any of the following ‘shopping events’ previously?
Christmas/Boxing Day 67%
Cyber Monday 14%
Amazon Prime Day 8%
Amazon Spring Sale 7%
Singles’ Day 7%
None of the Above 23%
****Have you ever bought something on Black Friday?
Yes, several times 28%
Yes, a lot 34%
No 38%
About PriceSpy:
PriceSpy is a comprehensive price and product comparison service used by millions of consumers every month. It helps consumers
find, discover, research and compare products.
PriceSpy has 108,000 indexed products, 1,730,000 indexed prices, 584,000 product ratings, 7,510 store ratings and 1183 stores.
Providing a fully impartial comparison service for consumers and a deep depository of price data for retailers.
Prisjaktlaunched in the year 2000 and is Sweden's largest price comparison service. The service is known in Sweden and
Norway asPrisjakt, and in the UK, Ireland and New Zealand asPriceSpy.
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