Worldline data shows there was $175.6 million spent at core retail merchants, excluding hospitality and food and liquor shops for the three days from Friday to Sunday. Photo: 123RF
Shoppers took the opportunity to splash out on Black Friday again, new data shows.
Electronic payment provider Worldline has released data for the three days from Friday to Sunday.
It shows there was $175.6 million spent at core retail merchants, excluding hospitality and food and liquor shops.
That was about the same as a year earlier, although the number of transactions was up and the value-per-transaction down slightly.
"Black Friday was clearly a big deal for retailers this year. The number of transactions jumped 17 percent between the previous three-day weekend and the Black Friday weekend," chief sales officer Bruce Proffit said.
"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."
Some smaller regions had big increases - Gisborne's spending was up almost 19 percent and Taranaki almost 14 percent.
Auckland/Northland and Bay of Plenty recorded a drop.
Proffit said Black Friday had come at the end of a month that was otherwise a bit soft.
Consumer spending at core retail merchants, excluding hospitality, hit $3.2 billion for the month, down 0.4 percent on 2023.
The largest annual increases were in Whanganui (+4.2 percent) and Otago (+3.1 percent). The largest declines were in Auckland/Northland (-1.5 percent) and Wellington (-1.5 percent).
Hospitality spending was up 0.4 percent for the month.
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