NZ Online Shopping Set To Explode This Christmas

AUCKLAND – 16 November, 2000 – With just over five weeks to go until Christmas Day, New Zealanders are gearing up to shop online for their Christmas goods, significantly more than last year.

According to Brave New World’s General Manager for Business Development, Jason Paris, “While New Zealand shoppers were hesitant to buy online last Xmas, by all indications this year things look set to take off with an improvement in security for e-commerce transactions over the web. Coupled with the time saving aspects of shopping online, we expect to see a dramatic rise in the volume of sales this Christmas - especially for items such as groceries, CD’s, books and computer games as they don’t need that personal face to face consumer decision making.”

Citing a recent report published by the NPD Group, Paris states that return shoppers will fuel part of the growth. The report states that, “95 percent of the shoppers who bought last year plan to do so again and over 50 percent also plan to spend more online than last year. Additionally, up to half of all online shoppers will be first time buyers.” (E-Commerce Times, November, 2000).*

One of Brave New World’s clients, Beauty Direct, is a New Zealand online organisation experiencing some of the above trends.

Bronwen Evans, Chief Executive Officer of Beauty Direct says that, “we expect it to follow similar patterns of the physical retail stores where they do anywhere from two to five times their normal monthly turnover. We also predict it to be at least double our normal monthly sales.

“The last two days before Christmas (last minute shopping) is huge for retailers but difficult to cash in on for online retailers as orders will need to be in by 20 December to guarantee delivery for Christmas day.”

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* About the NPD Group report
The report, which is based in part on an ongoing survey of more than 4,300 US Web users, is among the strongest estimates for the Christmas season. It is predicted that US shoppers will spend $US12.5 billion online during November and December, more than double last year's spending. The Yankee Group released a study in September saying the fourth quarter would ring in at $US9 billion - a 70 percent increase over last year.

About Brave New World
Brave New World offers a blend of traditional and new world communications for clients, leveraging the opportunities of integrated digital channels through next-generation communication tools. With a team of sixty, Brave New World provides a complete solution of strategic, creative, branding, data analysis and measurement services.
Brave New World recently merged the talents of New Zealand’s largest online advertising company, WebMasters Network Limited and the leading design house Dave Clark Design Associates to form the new communications services company.

For further information, please contact:
Jason Paris, Brave New World, tel: +64 9 358 2448, mob: 021 545 678 email: jason.paris@bravenewworld.co.nz
Bronwen Evans, Beauty Direct, tel: +64 9 520 1500, mob: 025 241 3869 email: bronwen@beautydirect.co.nz
Nimita Morarji, Botica Conroy & Associates, tel: +64 9 303 3862, mob: 021 950058, email: nimitam@bca.co.nz

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