Consumer spending across New Zealand on Boxing Day has topped levels from last year, but only just.

Worldline NZ figures for the full six-week pre-Christmas shopping period have shown a slight drop on last year.

Consumer spending over the three weeks before Christmas Day through core retail merchants in Worldline NZ’s payments network (excluding hospitality) reached $2.89 billion.

That was up 0.8 per cent on the same three weeks in 2021 and up 14.9 per cent on 2019.

The average transaction size for this time period in 2022 was $56.76, down 2.8 per cent from last year.

Across the regions, spending for these three weeks prior to Christmas Day was highest in West Coast (up10.7 per cent), Marlborough (up 7.7 per cent) and Otago (up 7.5 per cent).

But pre-Christmas spending in December was below 2021 levels in Auckland/Northland (down 0.9 per cent), Bay of Plenty (down-0.9 per cent), Wellington (-1.4 per cent) and Gisborne (down 2.1 per cent).

Worldline figures cover about 70 per cent of all electronic transactions around the country.

Spending through core retail merchants (excluding hospitality) in Worldline NZ’s payments network over the full six weeks of pre-Christmas spending, which includes Black Friday sales, shows spending reached $5.21 billion.

That was down 0.7 per cent on the same six weeks in 2021 and up 13.6 per cent on 2019.

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“Together with the spending surge slowing on Christmas Eve, this made for a busy but ultimately not record-breaking six-week pre-Christmas shopping period,” said Bruce Proffit, Worldline NZ chief sales officer.

Across the regions, annual pre-Christmas spending growth for the six-weeks before Christmas was highest in the West Coast , Otago and Southland.

Pre-Christmas spending over this six-week period was below year-ago levels in Auckland/Northland and Wellington, as well as several smaller regions.

On Boxing Day this year, spending reached $100.5m, up 2.6 per cent on Boxing Day 2021 (a Sunday) and up 3.1 per cent on 2019 (a Thursday).

Proffit said although this Boxing Day did reach record heights in total, the experience of merchant groups was mixed.

“As was the case last year, Black Friday spending exceeded that of Boxing Day, but both days remain below the spend on the days immediately prior to Christmas Day,” he said.