Retailers offer online option for crowd-shy Boxing Day shoppers as confidence surges 

Shoppers will descend on the Boxing Day sales today – but New Zealanders have already splurged nearly $500 million more than they did four years ago on Christmas shopping.

The surge in spending confidence is shown by a comparison of electronic transaction data, adjusted for inflation.

According to Paymark figures, Kiwis spent nearly $500 million more than they did four years ago in the first three weeks of December. Spending for the whole country increased by 16 per cent over the same period.

The biggest rise was in Palmerston North and Auckland/Northland, at 28 per cent and 20 per cent respectively.

Spending in Wanganui and Marlborough was largely static, while the West Coast was the only region where spending fell, by 1 per cent.

Paymark processes about three-quarters of New Zealand’s electronic transactions and its figures show Christmas spending for the whole country has been steadily increasing, after it fell between 2007 and 2008.

Despite the increase in Christmas spending, thousands of shoppers will brave the crowds competing for bargains at today’s Boxing Day sales.

Last year malls reported lines of eager shoppers waiting for doors to open at 9am, with cars later nose-to-tail for more than 500m from Westfield’s St Lukes mall in Auckland and long waits for parks.

In light of that disruption, some retailers are advertising to entice those who want both peace and a bargain.

The Warehouse has urged customers to use its online shopping system to select the best deals, and then collect the goods in store at a time when the crowds have thinned.

On Boxing Day last year 380,000 customers came through the doors of its stores, and this year the retailer’s online shopping deals have been available since 7am yesterday.

And for the first time, electronics retailer Dick Smith has included a QR scanning code on its top sale items featured in newspaper advertisements and in-store flyers. Using the store’s mobile app, customers can scan the QR codes to buy the goods directly – skipping checkout queues and crowds in the stores.

“Instead of spending time in a queue, they can pick up a flyer in store, go have a coffee, put their feet up and make their Boxing Day purchases from their mobile phone,” said Nick Abboud, chief executive of Dick Smith, Australia and New Zealand.

NZTA highway manager Tommy Parker says drivers need to plan their trips and allow plenty of time for a safe journey. Photo / Natalie Slade

The busy period on the roads for holiday travellers in and out of Auckland is expected to start today, with 5,000 to 8,000 more vehicles on the road daily.

Regional highways and roads are traditionally clogged on Boxing Day, the NZ Transport Agency says.

“This is one of our busiest times of the year – the time when Aucklanders head north and south for their holidays and the city’s Christmas sales start,” agency highway manager Tommy Parker said.

The Northern Gateway Toll Road on SH1, north of Auckland, would be one of the busiest roads, he said. It usually hosts 15,000 trips a day but averaged almost 20,000 a day over Christmas last year. Its busiest day, January 2, totalled 23,500 trips.

Mr Parker stressed the need for drivers to plan their trips and allow plenty of time for a safe journey.

The proportion of crashes on open roads that result in injury increases from 39 per cent year-round to 54 per cent over the holiday period, police statistics reveal. For serious or fatal crashes, this increases from 51 per cent to 66 per cent.