Another Busy Black Friday Weekend For Kiwi Retailers But Patterns Were Mixed Across NZ

Kiwi consumers proved once again that they are taking advantage of widespread discounting over the Black Friday weekend, with the total spend through Worldline NZ’s payments network matching the large spend of 2023.

Data released by Worldline NZ today shows consumer spending through Core Retail merchants (excluding Hospitality and Food/Liquor retailers) in its payments network reached $175.6m over the three-day Black Friday weekend (Friday – Sunday) in November 2024.

This total virtually equals the spend for Black Friday weekend in November 2023, adjusting for the usual shifts in merchants coming and going from Worldline NZ’s payments network.

Worldline NZ’s Chief Sales Officer, Bruce Proffit, says the number of transactions was up this year but the value per transaction was down slightly, giving the net “no change” in the dollars spent. He notes the number of transactions was up 2.8% on last year, while the average transaction size was $83.50, down -2.8%.

“Black Friday was clearly a big deal for retailers this year. The number of transactions jumped 17% between the previous three-day weekend and the Black Friday weekend,” says Proffit.

“Also, the average transaction size increased from the previous weekend ($79.80) in spite of the widespread discounting. This means people were making more purchases and spending more than usual on each purchase. However, the overall spend did not surpass last year and there were mixed spending patterns across the country – a reminder that budgets are still tight,” he says.

“There were big increases in some of the smaller regions – which were coming off low bases – and a small increase in Wellington and Waikato, but declines in the other two major regions, Auckland/Northland and in Canterbury.”

Figure 1: All Cards NZ underlying* spending through Worldline 29 Nov to 1 Dec 2024 for core retail excluding hospitality and food/liquor merchants, versus 24-26 Nov 2023 (* Underlying excludes large clients moving to or from Worldline)

“The Black Friday sales end a month that was otherwise a little soft, even after adding spending through Food and Liquor merchants into the total,” says Profft.

Consumer spending through Core Retail merchants (excluding Hospitality) in its payments network reached $3.20B in November 2024, down -0.4% from November 2023.

The largest annual increases were in Whanganui (+4.2%) and Otago (+3.1%). The largest declines were in Auckland/Northland (-1.5%) and Wellington (-1.5%).

Figure 2: All Cards NZ underlying* spending through Worldline in November 2024 for core retail excluding hospitality merchants (* Underlying excludes large clients moving to or from Worldline)

Consumer spending in the Hospitality sector meanwhile was $977m in November 2024, up 0.4% from November 2023.

Examples of extraordinary events that affected regional spend trends were the storm damage and road closures that occurred in the West Coast region in mid-November, which likely contributed to the $0.5m annual drop (-5.0%) in Hospitality spending through Worldline NZ’s payments network in that region in November overall.

The largest annual increase in Hospitality spending for November came in Whanganui (+7.4%).

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