Online Retail Up 129% Month On Month As Kiwis Shop Online During Lockdown.

New data from SLICE Digital, the New Zealand affiliate marketing network, has today shown that Kiwis are online shopping more than ever before. The ongoing restrictions on movements and shopping activity in Auckland and across the country have seen more and more New Zealanders turn to the internet for their shopping essentials and occasional treats.

SLICE Digital partners with over 150 online retailers in New Zealand and have been monitoring online sales to the likes of Countdown, Healthpost, Kathmandu, OnceIt and TheMarket through their online tracking technology. Since the increase in alert levels on August 17th, online traffic and sales through the SLICE Digital platform has increased hugely. Traffic was up by 78% in the second half of August versus the first half. Accordingly, the online sales for SLICE Digital clients have increased by 162% across the same period, with hundreds more sales taking place every week.

Moving into September, the data continues to show the increase in traffic and sales, even with only Auckland now at Level 4. For the comparable period, August 1st to 16th versus September 1st to 16th the platform has seen traffic increase by 67% and sales increase by 129%.

With Auckland moving to Level 3 today and the rest of the country remaining at Level 2, more items become available for online shopping and contactless delivery. It will be interesting to see if there is an extra surge in online speeding over the coming days with consumers able to buy more items and treat themselves to some non-essentials.

Asked to comment on the trends, SLICE Digital CEO Gavin Male said, "It is no surprise that Kiwis have increased their level of online shopping, we saw the same trend in previous lockdowns but the levels of adoption just keep going up. The first lockdown back in March 2020 saw a huge number of Kiwis transition to online shopping for the first time, and whilst the volume dropped back for some when we came out of lockdown, a significant change had occurred with more people than ever now confident to shop online."

Commenting further, Male added, "Online retailers with affiliate marketing programs have seen even greater success than those reliant on some of the more established marketing channels, like Facebook and Google. As the demand for online traffic increases and more companies bid on search terms through Google and for audiences via Facebook, the price of online marketing through these channels increases, making a positive return on investment much harder to achieve. With affiliate marketing, advertisers only pay for results. The channel operates on a pure ‘pay for performance’ basis and there is no cost for clicks or traffic that reaches an advertiser’s website unless it converts to actual sales."

Online shopping will continue to grow and forecasts show more Kiwis adopting online shopping than ever before and with Black Friday and Cyber Monday just a couple of months away, the demise of bricks and mortar retail will seemingly continue...

Upcoming Key Retail Dates:

Queens Birthday Long Weekend October 23-25

Singles Day - November 11

Black Friday / Cyber Monday - November 26-29

Boxing Day - December 26

New Year Sale - Jan 1

About SLICE Digital.

SLICE Digital is a New Zealand affiliate marketing network. Our tracking and reporting platform enables both Kiwi and international brands to create commission-based relationships with third party advertising partners that promote their products or services, and generate sales. S.L.I.C.E Digital focuses on New Zealand advertisers and in doing so we attract New Zealand orientated affiliates. With 150+ advertisers and 3,000 affiliates we have become the dominant market player in New Zealand.

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