Retailers Toughing Out The Winter Months As Kiwis Spend More On Food But Less On Other Things

AUCKLAND, 7 July 2023 – Data on consumer spending processed through Worldline NZ’s payments network in June show Kiwi retailers continued to face tough trading conditions as winter began, although the trend did not worsen during the month.

Consumer spending in June 2023 through all Core Retail merchants (excluding Hospitality) in Worldline NZ’s payments network reached $2.908B, which is up 5.3% on June 2022, and up 18.9% on the same month in 2019.

Worldline NZ’s Chief Sales Officer, Bruce Proffit, says these numbers show spending patterns have not changed much in the last few weeks compared to the previous month, although pockets of higher spending activity were evident in Whanganui and Otago.

“Spending on non-food items, in aggregate, remains below that of 12 months ago while food spending is running higher throughout the nation,” says Proffit.

Worldline’s numbers show spending through Food and Liquor stores in June was up 9.4% on the same month last year and down 0.9% amongst the remaining non-food Core Retail merchants (excluding Hospitality).

Unsurprisingly, the most noticeable change within the month was the surge in spending at Fuel retailing merchants ahead of the 1 July removal of the fuel temporary excise duty reduction. This spending, which includes fuel and other items, jumped 24% in the week ending Friday 30 June from the previous three-week average, with the largest spike on Friday.

“Transactions processed on Saturday, 1 July, were also above average but the Saturday total includes some Friday spending processed early Saturday morning,” says Proffit.

Around the regions, the highest annual growth rate was recorded by Core Retail merchants (excluding Hospitality) in Whanganui (+11.2%). Noticeably, this was up across a range of merchants in the region, including clothing stores, pharmacies, and supermarkets, as well as Hospitality merchants and – beyond Core Retail – amongst beauty and hairdressing salons.

The lowest growth rate was in Wellington (3.4%), although other large centres, such as Canterbury (+4.7%) and Auckland/Northland (+5.5%), did not fare much better.

Gisborne’s annual spending growth (+5.7%) was slightly above the national average but this statistic conceals underlying challenges such as the sharply lower spending on the days of the storms and an 8.2% annual decline amongst Hospitality merchants for the month.

Meanwhile, Hospitality spending in Otago was up 6.1%, likely due in part to steadily rising accommodation spending in the last couple of weeks as the ski season gathers momentum, and ahead of the busy school holiday period.

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