NZ Post has seen $1.78 billion in online sales for the third quarter 2021 – the biggest quarter since it started monitoring the markets over three years ago.
The quarter was impacted by lockdowns and saw sale figures elevated as a result. Overall it was up 22% on the same quarter last year, according to NZ Post’s latest eCommerce Spotlight report.
Compared to online spend for the same quarter two years ago (Q3 19), this was up more than 50%.
Online year-to-date spending is up 13% (more than $500 million) on the first nine months of 2020 and up 44% compared to pre-COVID days in 2019.
NZ Post forecasts 2021 online spend will be more than $6.6b (up 14% year-on-year) with big sales days still ahead.
The third quarter saw an average of 165,000 online transactions per day with the total number of customers online slightly down on the same period last year.
Despite the total shopper number being flat, there were 20% more first-time shoppers than in the same quarter of 2020. The second trend is that online shoppers are spending less on average each time, but shopping with much greater frequency. The average basket size was $103 this quarter compared to $110 in the same quarter last year.
Over the quarter, shoppers averaged $849 online spend – $155 (22%) more than the same quarter a year ago.
Sector growth
In last year’s lockdowns, there was significant growth in homewares, appliances and electronics following more working from home and home schooling. However, this has only increased 6% over the same quarter last year.
The big winner over the third quarter has been clothing and footwear, up 37%.
NZ Post’s largest sector – department, variety and miscellaneous retail – also had a good quarter, with spend over $570m, up 27% on the same quarter last year.
Speciality food, groceries and liquor had steady growth of 16% over the quarter as many Kiwis returned to getting their groceries delivered. The quarter’s spend is up a massive 71% over the same quarter two years ago. This is the highest two-year growth of any of the sectors.
