Not seeing or talking to shopkeepers is a growth multimillion-dollar business, a new online retailing report from NZ Post shows.
It shows Otago and Southland residents spent $280million on online shopping last year, a 20% jump on 2017.
People in Otago spent $207million online, up 15%, in 2.2million transactions and those in Southland spent $76million online, up 20%, in 900,000 transactions, which were up 14% and averaging $89.
The most prominent online shoppers in New Zealand were women aged between 30 and 45 who lived in rural areas.
NZ Post chief marketing officer, Bryan Dobson, said the spending was good news for online New Zealand stores, which grew at nearly double the rate of growth for international online stores.
"Although New Zealanders still enjoy shopping internationally with nearly one dollar in every three being spent with an offshore online retailer, New Zealanders also say that they prefer to buy from local retailers because they trust them and would like to support home-grown businesses.
"Customer needs are changing quickly: they want speed, efficiency and convenience."
Nationally, the report shows 1.8million New Zealanders chose to shop online last year, spending a total of $4.2billion.
Another trend that had emerged was the rise in popularity of Buy Now Pay Later payment methods, such as Afterpay, with 12% of shoppers using these payment methods in 2018.
Most Buy Now Pay Later users were aged under 45, and over half of users were women under 45.
The large growth in online shopping had mainly come from people shopping more often, with online shoppers hitting the "buy" button 22 times each per year.
The report was undertaken by NZ Post because courier delivery had surpassed mail as the largest contributor to its revenue.
- FISI-BELLE CARRASCO-REX
