Kiwis Pick up the Pace as Christmas Approaches

15 December 2009

Kiwis Pick up the Pace as Christmas Approaches

The latest figures from Paymark show that with only 11 days to Christmas Kiwis are picking up the purchasing pace with the volume of national transactions up 6.7 percent (to 13 December).

For the week beginning Monday December 7 (to Sunday December 13) the Paymark network processed 19,014,168 transactions with especially strong trading falling on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. This surge equated to a 5.84 percent year on year increase for the same period in 2008, with a total of $1.74 billion spent across the network.

 The network’s peak hour was recorded between12pm and1pm on Saturday with 318,831 transactions processed – 2.26% up on the same Saturday peak last year.

But it’s not only volume that has picked up in the Christmas countdown.  The value of transactions is also on the up with transactional value increasing 3.9 percent, versus growth of 0.5 percent in October and November.

This acceleration in spending was noticeable in the major centres of Auckland and Wellington where spending growth has been slow throughout the year; however the fastest growth was recorded outside the major centres, in Wanganui.

Paymark CEO Simon Tong says that this increase in spending is consistent with trading trends across the past few years and expects traditional purchasing patterns to continue over the next 10 shopping days.

“Kiwis have really started to pick up the pace with 11 days to go. If we look at spending patterns and trends from the last 20 years, we can expect to see more of the same as the year comes to a close,” says Simon.

Today, Paymark processes over 75% of all electronic transactions in New Zealand on behalf of more than 50 card issuers and acquirers. More than 73,000 merchants and 100,000 terminals are currently connected to the network.
           

ENDS

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