Benchmarking Data

Retailing Now

Retailing Now: High-level overview of NZ’s retail sector.

The retail sector is a significant part of the New Zealand economy. It’s also one of the only sectors that’s a part of every Kiwis’ everyday life. With this report, you can access high-level insights on this dynamic industry.

Retail is a highly competitive market, in both ecommerce and traditional bricks and mortar spaces. It’s continuously changing to meet consumer demands, and often driven by consumer behaviour. Thus, a constant challenge is to proactively provide what’s currently desired by customers, whilst delivering a unique shopping experience.

Retailing Now is an up-to-date* view of the sector’s performance, so you can understand what retail in New Zealand is like today, and where it’s heading for the future.


The retail industry is an incredibly diverse industry, with everything from fuel and grocery, to fashion, to electronics, to building supplies, to jewellers, to cars… Retail NZ is here to help this large and varied sector succeed across the nation.

While business owners are struggling to see growth in consumer spending, in the long-run things are looking better overall. Indeed, growth in online spending is skyrocketing, with a 19% increase in domestic spend online in 2018.

What are recent market developments are affecting New Zealand retailers?

Firstly, there is more competition. Secondly, there’s greater pressure to be environmentally sustainable. Thirdly, there’s increased pressure on wages and operational costs. And also, there’s a number of other employment law changes. While these changes are significant, retailers are resilient and work hard to meet customer demand. Presently, retailers in New Zealand are continuing to outperform Australia’s retail market


I hope that our members, as well as others who have a keen interest in the retail sector, find this report to be a useful tool to help them achieve future success.

If you have questions or feedback about the report please get in touch.


Greg Harford
Chief Executive, Retail NZ


*Updated 4th December 2019


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