Half of Kiwis now shop online

Wednesday, 2 December 2015, 12:28 pm
Press Release: Roy Morgan Research

Half of Kiwis now shop online

The number of Kiwis buying products over the internet has grown 30% over the last four years. In the year to June 2015, 1.8 million New Zealanders 14+ (49.3%) bought at least one product over the internet in the last four weeks, up from just under 1.4 million (39.5%) in 2011, Roy Morgan Research shows.

9.0% of Kiwis now buy travel products such as tickets or accommodation online in an average four-week period, making it the most common internet purchase ahead of women’s clothing (7.9%), tickets to shows, movies or events (6.1%) and fast food/delivered meals (6.1%).

Other popular online purchases include Books (5.0%) and eBooks (4.1%), music downloads (4.7%), and men’s clothing (4.0%)—with around half the number of online buyers as womenswear.

Top 20 products Kiwis buy online

Source: Roy Morgan Single Source New Zealand, July 2014 - June 2015, sample n = 5983 New Zealanders 14+

During the month, around 100,000 Kiwis click to buy one or more items from a range of categories including shoes, video games and consoles, cosmetics and skincare, health products like vitamins and supplements, toys, crafts, sports equipment, computer accessories and software, and children’s clothing. Rounding out our top 20 online purchases are small electrical goods (2.5%), underwear, socks and hosiery (2.2%) and, with only around 1 in 50 online buyers in an average four weeks, supermarket shopping (2.1%).

John La Rosa, General Manager Client Services - ANZ Roy Morgan Research, says:

“It’s clear that many of the most common online sales are for non-physical items like tickets, bookings, home delivery, and downloads—that is, products with no shipping or that don’t need to be tried on or tested in a bricks-and-mortar store. For many, the internet is now the default channel for buying a travel or movie ticket, booking a hotel room, or ordering a pizza.

“Other commonly purchased items such as clothes, books and cosmetics are items that we know are identical whether bought online or in a store, so it may come down to price and convenience.

“But other products ranging from small electrical goods, sports equipment and homewares to computers, jewellery and hardware, are also gaining in the online space. It’s important that traditional retailers stop viewing online as a threat, and instead as an opportunity to reach and appeal to customers in different ways. Today’s consumers aren’t thinking in terms of online or offline—to them, it’s all just shopping. Retailers therefore need an ‘omni-channel’ view of their offerings, competition, pricing, service and advertising.

“Around two-thirds of internet shoppers agree they only buy from online retailers they know—whether that’s trustworthy online-only outlets or the websites of bricks-and-mortar shops. Around 1 in 5 say they only buy from New Zealand online stores.

“Also, the internet isn’t just a sales channel; it’s often the way we do a bit of pre-purchase planning via computer, mobile or tablet instead of visiting stores. Almost half of Kiwis agree they research products or services online before buying in-store, and almost 1 in 3 did product research online within the last four weeks.”

ENDS

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Roy Morgan Research

New Zealand's leading social and market research company

A full service research organisation specialising in omnibus and syndicated data, Roy Morgan Research has over 70 years' experience in collecting objective, independent information on consumers. Roy Morgan Research was set up in New Zealand in the 1990s and has been collecting information across a wide range of industries in New Zealand ever since. Roy Morgan currently has over 10 years of trended data on a geographically and demographically representative sample of over 12,000 New Zealanders aged 14+.

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