Valentine’s Day Spending Blooms Within An Otherwise Tough Month For The Retail Sector

Consumer spending across New Zealand reverted to its slight downward trend in the last three weeks of February with the notable exception of Valentine’s Day, according to figures released today by Worldline NZ.

Consumer spending through Core Retail merchants in Worldline NZ’s payments network in February 2025 reached $3.67B, which is down -4.8% on February 2024.

Worldline NZ’s Chief Sales Officer, Bruce Proffit says the size of the monthly decline mostly reflects the fact that there was an extra day in February 2024 due to the leap year, but is partly because that spending was down on 2024 in three of the four weeks of the month.

“In short, the tough retail environment of 2024 is clearly continuing into 2025,” says Proffit.

“The small positive growth rate seen in January did persist into the first week of February but we then saw spending drop on last year amongst Core Retail merchants in Worldline’s network for the following three weeks.”

Proffit also notes that spending was running -0.7% below last year in the last week of February.

“However, tight budgets did not dampen the romantic flame this year, with Valentine’s Day seeing a notable upwards spike in spending at florists and jewellers, and – to a slightly lesser extent – at a few other related merchant groups on the Thursday and Friday of 13 and 14 February.”

Spending at florists, jewellers, chemists, bookshops and cafés and restaurants in Worldline NZ’s payments network was $51.2m on Thursday, 13 February, and Friday, 14 February, combined, which is up 16.3% on the same two days in 2024.

“Our traditional Regional Romantic Rating, based on annual spending growth at florists and jewellers, showed that South Canterbury and the Waikato regions were feeling the most Valentine’s Day love this year as they saw the largest spending increase at these retailers.”

Meanwhile, regional Core Retail spending growth for the full month of February was strongest in Whanganui (+1.0%) and weakest in Auckland/Northland (-7.0%), Wellington (-6.5%), Marlborough (-6.5%) and Bay of Plenty (-6.0%).

Note:

These figures reflect general market trends and should not be taken as a proxy for Worldline‘s market share or company earnings. The figures primarily reflect transactions undertaken within stores but also include some ecommerce transactions. The figures exclude transactions through Worldline undertaken by merchants outside the Core Retail sector (as defined by Statistics NZ).

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