NZ Post has just released an exhaustive report on our online shopping profile over the past year. The report – Full Download 2021 – is based on transaction card data from Datamine, NZ Post-conducted retailer and consumer surveys, and third-party
e-commerce research.
2020 saw 52% of Kiwis aged 16+ shopping online, spending $5.8 billion, representing 25% growth in online spend over the previous year. And 306,000 of these were first-time online shoppers. Not surprisingly, Covid-19 lockdown generated a major boost.
Here’s the Hawke’s Bay profile:
Online spend: $163 million
Spending growth: 30%
Transactions: 1.6 million
Transaction growth: 24%
Basket size: $102 … and growth: 5%
Overall retail spending was up 5% nationally on the previous year; 11% of all retail sales are online (this compares to over 20% in the US and UK).
There’s always been a concern that online shopping would especially hurt local retailers, but in fact 71% of our online spend is with local retailers, who are getting more and more sophisticated with e-commerce and online advertising.
While online shopping is broadly spread across the population, 10% of us are super-shoppers, accounting for 42% of the online spend! And it’s not just young techies … online spending rose 30% in the 60+ age group, who account for 26% of all online shoppers.
The average Kiwi spent $2,523 online in 2020, shopping on average 23 times a year. But the online super-shoppers – 258,000 of them – averaged a whopping $8,946 online spend, with 82 transactions per shopper. Women under age 45 and men over age 45 dominate this group.
For those of you sensing there’s a heap of money being spent in Hawke’s Bay, you’re right. HB had the highest growth of online super-shoppers, up 41%.
What did we buy? The fastest growing segment, up 49%, was Homewares, Electronics and Appliances. Close behind was Specialty Food, Groceries and Liquor at 47% up; this was HB’s biggest growth segment, up 56%.
Will all this online spending represent some sort of temporary bubble. Retailers don’t think so. Fully 87% expect their online revenue will be the same (31%) or greater (56%) this year. Just a bit more optimistic than the shoppers, 49% of whom expect to spend the same and 29% to spend more.
And 52% of shoppers who spent more online in 2020 say their online shopping habits have changed forever. Here are the drivers …
How do your online shopping habits compare?
Here’s the full report, with heaps more data for you e-commerce addicts.