Highest ever spending yesterday on the Paymark network

Highest ever spending yesterday on the Paymark network

Auckland, Wednesday 24th December 2014: Yesterday was the highest ever spending day recorded through the Paymark network with a whopping $255 million spent across the country – up 8.8% on the same day last year.

The highest ever peak transaction rate of 156 per second was recorded at 12:35pm today. This compares with 148 transactions per second in 2013.

Paymark’s Head of Customer Relations Mark Spicer says the figures indicate that more people are leaving Christmas shopping until the last minute.

“To give some sense of the change in the last few days, spending this Tuesday was up 45.1% on last Tuesday. In terms of annual growth, spending at supermarkets and other food stores yesterday was up 12.7% on the same day last year.”

Consumers remained focused on the home yesterday with strong spending seen in furniture and floor covering stores. This particular sector registered a 19.9% increase on last year, whilst hardware was up 7.7% on the same day last year.

Elsewhere the pattern remains mixed with spending at book and video stores up 9.8% while clothing, apparel and jewellery spending was up a modest 2.6%.

The table below shows regional spending figures for yesterday, December 23rd:

PAYMARK All Cards Data 23 Dec 2014 versus same date 2013)
. . . Volume (million transactions) . . . Value of spending ($millions)
Region . . . Last Year . . . Current Year . . . Volume Difference . . . Last Year . . . Current Year . . . Value Difference
Auckland/Northland . . . 1.47 . . . 1.67 . . . 13.7% . . . $90.9 . . . $98.7 . . . 8.6%
Waikato . . . 0.31 . . . 0.34 . . . 12.5% . . . $18.1 . . . $19.6 . . . 8.3%
BOP . . . 0.27 . . . 0.31 . . . 13.6% . . . $16.3 . . . $17.8 . . . 9.4%
Gisborne . . . 0.04 . . . 0.05 . . . 18.3% . . . $2.2 . . . $2.5 . . . 14.1%
Taranaki . . . 0.10 . . . 0.10 . . . 7.9% . . . $5.8 . . . $6.0 . . . 4.4%
Hawke’s Bay . . . 0.12 . . . 0.13 . . . 12.2% . . . $6.9 . . . $7.4 . . . 7.8%
Wanganui . . . 0.04 . . . 0.05 . . . 15.7% . . . $2.4 . . . $2.6 . . . 10.1%
Palmerston North . . . 0.12 . . . 0.14 . . . 13.8% . . . $7.2 . . . $7.9 . . . 9.5%
Wairarapa . . . 0.04 . . . 0.04 . . . 9.5% . . . $2.5 . . . $2.5 . . . 2.8%
Wellington . . . 0.38 . . . 0.42 . . . 10.8% . . . $20.8 . . . $22.0 . . . 6.0%
Nelson . . . 0.09 . . . 0.09 . . . 11.1% . . . $5.2 . . . $5.6 . . . 8.6%
Marlborough . . . 0.05 . . . 0.05 . . . 8.0% . . . $3.1 . . . $3.4 . . . 7.6%
West Coast . . . 0.03 . . . 0.03 . . . 6.9% . . . $1.9 . . . $1.9 . . . 0.7%
Canterbury . . . 0.44 . . . 0.49 . . . 11.4% . . . $26.5 . . . $29.5 . . . 11.3%
South Canterbury . . . 0.07 . . . 0.07 . . . 5.2% . . . $4.4 . . . $4.4 . . . 0.0%
Otago . . . 0.20 . . . 0.22 . . . 11.7% . . . $12.4 . . . $13.6 . . . 9.6%
Southland . . . 0.09 . . . 0.10 . . . 3.6% . . . $6.0 . . . $6.1 . . . 0.9%
New Zealand . . . 3.87 . . . 4.36 . . . 12.6% . . . $235.0 . . . $255.7 . . . 8.8%

Note: History shows that changes in Paymark transactions are not always consistent with retail sales, as released by Statistics NZ, but they do provide a wide measure of household spending. Some Paymark transactions occur through merchants not currently considered part of the retail sector. Some electronic sales are transacted through other switching houses and there remains spending with cash, cheques or other non-electronic means. Paymark spending includes any GST paid to the merchant, and also includes cash withdrawals at the time of purchase.

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