Big Week for Paymark Merchants

The Big Week

We are now in spend mode. This week will be the busiest week of the year for many Paymark merchants. For most, the busiest seven days of the year will end either Friday or Saturday.

Last year, spending in the seven days ending Christmas Eve was 53% above the average seven-day spend during the earlier months of January to October across the Paymark network (measured on an underlying basis).

Spending for many merchants will be more than twice the weekly average.

Not all have exactly the same seasonal pattern.

The doctors‘ and dentists‘ seven-day peak last year ended earlier than most, coming on the 19th and 20th December respectively. Taxis hit a peak earlier in the month. For Electronic and Footwear stores, the peak seven days ended Boxing Day, indicating the importance of Boxing Day sales for these merchants. The peak for Accommodation providers was the last seven days of the year. Some like Garden centres, Florists, Drycleaners and Travel companies have peaks at other times of the year. For the majority, though, and this includes a wide cross section of merchants – Supermarkets, Petrol stations, Department stores, Rental cars, Vets, Hairdressors, Adult entertainment, Cafes - the peak seven days is expected to be this week.

The step up to the busy week was taken in the most recent seven days to Sunday 17 December 2017. Spending through Paymark was $1,445 million, up 7% on the previous week. Relative to 2016, the underlying growth rate of 5.8% was slightly below the average growth rate recorded to date for 2017 and below that of the strong early Christmas sale period. This shows as the ratio of pre-Christmas spending to spending earlier in the year being slightly lower than this time last year. However, this may well represent a relative respite before the very busy Friday and Saturday ahead, such is the fall of weekdays this year.

The influence of the 2016 Kaikoura earthquake shows in the regional spending statistics, with annual underlying growth strongest last week in Marlborough (18.8%), including Kaikoura in Paymark figures, and weak in Canterbury (3.4%), South Canterbury (3.5%) and Nelson (3.9%). However there also remains a spending growth bias towards the smaller regions and away from the major centres, shown as below-average growth in Auckland/ Northland (4.4%) and Wellington (5.1%).

ENDS

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