Boxing day expected to remain country's biggest day of spending despite Black Friday boost

Boxing Day is expected to remain the country's favourite shopping day this year despite a big Black Friday spend.

In this year's Black Friday sales, consumers spent around 175-million dollars from Friday 29 November to Sunday 1 December according to Worldline.

Price comparison website PriceMe said it is a big few days of spending that starts earlier each year, with sales now kicking off at least a week out.

Boxing Day is still the biggest single shopping day, chief executive Gavin Male said, due to its long standing tradition as the time to spend Christmas money and get a deal.

"Black Friday is still a relatively new phenomenon for Kiwis so I think that Boxing Day still holds that special sort of shopping place and there are still huge discounts to be had, particularly when retailers have had a tough year and they're looking to close out by shifting some big sales in that last month of the year."

Male encouraged shoppers to compare any Boxing Day sales to ensure they get the best deal.

PriceMe's most recent survey found people wait for sales to shop, he said, with the website seeing a 55 percent boost in traffic on Black Friday compared to usual.

"We continuously encourage people to check those pricing trends because they'll be able to highlight a massive discount but potentially there's been some sort of slow and steady price increases in the build up to that day. So, make sure you're checking the pricing trends to ensure that really cheap deal is actually a really cheap deal."

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