New Zealanders Get into the Online Spending Spirit

NEW ZEALANDERS GET INTO THE ONLINE SPENDING SPIRIT

• 1.1 million New Zealanders expected to purchase Christmas items this year
• Clothing, books and toys are the most popular gifts online

21 DECEMBER 2016: The use of digital channels is gaining traction in the shopping realm for New Zealand consumers according to Nielsen, a leading global provider of information and insights into what consumers watch and buy.

Last year over half of all online shoppers (51%) purchased Christmas related items digitally. This Christmas it is expected that a record 1.1 million people will be purchasing festive season items via the internet. See Chart 1.

Clothing, books and toys are the most popular gifts online. During the 2015 Christmas period clothing purchased was at an all time high of 34%.

Buying books was the number two category for online Christmas shopping - up three percentage points year on year and surpassing toys. See Chart 2.

2015 also saw a greater interest in the purchase of DVD/movies (not downloaded) and fitness/sporting equipment as online gifts for family and friends.

Tony Boyte, Director, Nielsen NZ explains, “The Christmas boost will enhance e-commerce's steady growth. Consumers love the convenience of shopping online, taking away some of the stress such as parking and crowds - if they order in time!”

Boyte advises, “To stand out from the crowd online retailers need to put themselves in their shoppers’ shoes. Fast tracking the consumers’ experiences on their mobiles and allaying delivery concerns means online retailers could enjoy further growth over the festive season as well as in the new year.”

Chart 1

Chart 2

ABOUT THE NIELSEN E-COMMERCE REPORT 2016
Nielsen’s E-Commerce Report provides New Zealand’s only in-depth information on the nation’s online retailing. It is an annual measure of e-commerce activity and shopping patterns. The research methodology combines an Online Panel Survey of 1,100 New Zealanders with Nielsen’s Consumer and Media Insights service and Nielsen Online Ratings.

ABOUT NIELSEN
Nielsen Holdings plc (NYSE: NLSN) is a global performance management company that provides a comprehensive understanding of what consumers Watch and Buy. Nielsen’s Watch segment provides media and advertising clients with Total Audience measurement services across all devices where content—video, audio and text—is consumed. The Buy segment offers consumer packaged goods manufacturers and retailers the industry's only global view of retail performance measurement. By integrating information from its Watch and Buy segments and other data sources, Nielsen provides its clients with both world-class measurement as well as analytics that help improve performance. Nielsen, an S&P 500 company, has operations in over 100 countries that cover more than 90% of the world's population. For more information, visit www.nielsen.com.

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