Kiwis continue to leave gift buying to the ‘last minute’

17 December 2019

PriceSpy data shows courageous Kiwis continue to leave gift buying to the ‘last minute’ in the hope of bag a bargain

• Almost a third of survey respondents** say they wait until a week before Christmas to do their shopping

• Historical pricing data from PriceSpy in 2018 highlights how last-minute buying can pay off, with 80 per cent of the top picked Christmas gifts costing less to purchase on Christmas Eve, compared to a week before

• PriceSpy predicts this year’s most popular products

A new consumer omnibus survey* commissioned by the country’s biggest impartial price and product comparison site, PriceSpy, has found almost a third of plucky New Zealanders are leaving their Christmas shopping to the last week before Christmas.

The PriceSpy survey found most (32 per cent) did their shopping up to two months in advance, however almost a third of consumers (29 per cent) leave it until the last minute. While the most-organised (six per cent) take no risks and shop up to a year in advance.

Liisa Matinvesi-Bassett, New Zealand country manager for PriceSpy, says: “For the past couple of years, our historical click data has found many Kiwis are leaving their Christmas shopping later and later, mirroring these survey findings. The most daring, in fact, are hanging back until Christmas Eve to purchase last minute gifts.”

Last year, the number of online shoppers using PriceSpy started to peak from 10th December and the busiest days ahead of Christmas Day were the 19th, 22nd December and Christmas Eve (24th). In 2017 a similar trend was also found, with traffic peaking on the 18th and 24th December.

Whilst leaving the shopping to the latest possible moment may risk late deliveries or products being out of stock, for those willing to take the gamble, this tactic can sometimes pay off, providing shoppers with significant savings.

PriceSpy’s top picked Christmas gifts from 2018

Liisa continues: “Looking at the top ten Christmas product predictions from 2018, our data highlights the closer you get towards Christmas, the more money consumers can potentially save on product purchases.

Even though last minute Christmas shopping can potentially help consumers save money at an otherwise expensive time of year, PriceSpy recommends shoppers should still plan ahead for all of their Christmas purchases.

Liisa adds: “We strongly recommend consumers use a price comparison site or app. As well as helping to save money, such websites and apps can help ensure people aren’t paying over the odds on items that may be over-inflated in price. It’s a fact that many products receive a bigger discount the closer we get towards Christmas. However, it’s also true that some items receive a price hike!

“To help Kiwis get a better overall transparent shopping experience, we encourage shoppers to download the PriceSpy app and set up price alerts for the items they’re looking to buy. This will then automatically send them a push notification when the price drops.”

Interestingly, the PriceSpy survey also found Christmas and Boxing Day are still Kiwi’s favourite shopping events of the year***, with 67% of people saying they had purchased something at this time previously. This was followed closely by 62% who have previously shopped in the Black Friday sales****.

Liisa concludes: “And for those struggling to find the perfect gift and need some inspiration, we’ve prepared our top product predictions for Christmas 2019.”

Top 10 gadget predictions for Christmas 2019:

1 Xiaomi MiJia M365 Electric Scooter

2 Apple AirPods Pro

3 Xiaomi Mi Robot Vacuum

4 Sony WH-1000XM3 -headphones

5 Amazon Echo Dot (3rd Generation)

6 Apple Watch Series 3 38mm Aluminium with Sport Band

7 Ultimate Ears UE Boom 3 -portable speaker

8 Fitbit Charge 3

9 Google Home Mini

10 Garmin Instinct

Top 10 games and consoles predictions for Christmas 2019:

1 Nintendo Switch

2 Pokemon Sword (Switch)

3 Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order (PS4)

4 Pokemon Sword (Switch)

5 Sony PlayStation 4 Pro 1TB

6 Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (PS4)

7 Logitech G29 Driving Force (PC/PS3/PS4)

8 Microsoft Xbox One S 1TB

9 Microsoft Xbox One Wireless Controller S - White (Xbox One/PC) (Original)

10 Pokémon Shield (Switch)

Top 5 predictions for LEGO for Christmas 2019:

1 LEGO Harry Potter 75954 Hogwarts Great Hall

2 LEGO Technic 42110 Land Rover Defender

3 LEGO Star Wars 75257 Millennium Falcon

4 LEGO Technic 42095 Remote-Controlled Stunt Racer

5 LEGO Classic 10698 Large Creative Brick Box

Download the PriceSpy app here.

www.pricespy.co.nz

Notes to editor:

Source:
*The PriceSpy consumer omnibus survey in 2019 was conducted by Savanta, in October 2019, on 506 New Zealand respondents

Survey questions and responses:

**When do you tend to do most of your Christmas shopping?

Up to a year in advance 6%

Up to six months in advance 12%

Up to two months in advance 32%

Over the big sales shopping days that take place in November e.g. Black Friday 21%

Last minute (up to a week before Christmas Day) 29%

***Have you purchased anything on any of the following ‘shopping events’ previously?

Christmas/Boxing Day 67%

Cyber Monday 14%

Amazon Prime Day 8%

Amazon Spring Sale 7%

Singles’ Day 7%

None of the Above 23%

****Have you ever bought something on Black Friday?

Yes, several times 28%

Yes, a lot 34%

No 38%

About PriceSpy:
PriceSpy is a comprehensive price and product comparison service used by millions of consumers every month. It helps consumers find, discover, research and compare products.

PriceSpy has 108,000 indexed products, 1,730,000 indexed prices, 584,000 product ratings, 7,510 store ratings and 1183 stores. Providing a fully impartial comparison service for consumers and a deep depository of price data for retailers.

The PriceSpy app is available to download for free, via the App Store and Google Play.

Prisjaktlaunched in the year 2000 and is Sweden's largest price comparison service. The service is known in Sweden and Norway asPrisjakt, and in the UK, Ireland and New Zealand asPriceSpy.

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