Share of e-commerce activities New Zealand 2021

E-commerce activities have continued to increase in popularity in New Zealand. As of January 2021, about 88 percent of people in New Zealand aged between 16 and 64 years had recently searched for a product or service to buy online. The share of online shoppers in the country was forecasted to surge to 83 percent by 2026.

Online shopping trends

Online grocery shopping via the supermarket chain Countdown generated the highest net e-commerce sales in 2018, surpassing the second ranked online store, The Warehouse, by over 300 percent. Many Kiwis are opting to do their weekly grocery shop online rather than in-store, taking advantage of the convenience, time and stress saving aspects of internet shopping. While online grocery shopping showed healthy growth in 2018, the furniture and homeware segment emerged with the largest growth rate in online spending in that year.

Rise of the digital wallet

Supported by a high internet penetration rate, New Zealanders look set to rapidly increase their future e-commerce shopping volume. Online shopping accounted for 8.9 percent of all retail spending as of 2019 and growth is expected to continue in this segment. The number of employees in the retail trade industry increased in 2018, though at a lower rate than in previous years. This indicates that traditional brick and mortar retail outlets may be starting to lose their dominance in the retail market, with increased competition from both local and global online stores.