The latest BNZ Online Retail Sales Index (to 31 January 2014) shows that growth in online shopping continues to outpace traditional shopping — but the big growth is in Kiwis buying from international sites, up 24% year-on-year (while domestic online sales grew by 10%).

In our view, that international growth is driven by quite a number of factors, including:

• greater Kiwi comfort with shopping from international sites (from big brand sites, at least)
• the increasing spread of debit cards, which provide more and more Kiwis with the ability to use their bank accounts for shopping online
• word of mouth from satisfied Kiwi international shoppers, encouraging their friends to do likewise
• the introduction of US and UK mailing addresses by New Zealand Post, publicising and legitimising the practice of mail collection and forwarding
• more and more international websites offering pricing in NZ dollars and some (eg UK Book Depository) offering free shipping to New Zealand

BNZ have put their latest stats into a handy infographic: