Boxing Day buying tips: What to remember before a shopping spree

Consumer NZ is urging people to do their homework, double check gift cards and know their rights ahead of Boxing Day sale frenzy.

By Keiller MacDuff of RNZ

Electronic transaction figures showed pre-Christmas spending was slightly down on last year, but many may be waiting for the post-Christmas sales to nab a bargain.

Last year New Zealanders spent almost $68 million on Boxing Day.

Consumer campaign manager Jessica Walker said shoppers should separate their wants from their needs and set a budget before hitting the shops to avoid a "buy-now-regret-later" situation.

She advised researching prospective purchases, as constantly fluctuating prices made it hard to know whether discounts were genuine or just a variation on the usual price, and check the item was not cheaper elsewhere.

It was a breach of the Fair Trading Act to mislead customers about the regular price, she said.

Walker urged shoppers to resist the pressure to purchase extended warranties - you're already covered under the Consumer Guarantees Act.

"Sometimes retailers will give you a really hard sell, especially if you buy a product on sale it might be a even more enticing opportunity for retailers to try and make some money from an extended warranty."

Walker recommended people ask what an extended warranty would provide that the Consumer Guarantees Act would not.

"Most of the time I think you'll find its very little. The Consumer Guarantees Act doesn't just cover you for the period of the manufacturer's warranty, it covers reasonable use over a reasonable length of time. The vast majority of the time, that's going to see you right - if a product's failed you do have the right to ask for a refund or an exchange depending on what's gone wrong."

Protections under the Consumer Guarantees Act applied whether people purchased sale goods or full priced ones, and signs warning of no refunds or exchanges on sale items were misleading, Walker said.

"Just because you bought something on sale does not mean you're forgoing your consumer rights."

Retailers did not have to refund for a change of mind, but if something was faulty or did not last as long as it should, "the retailer needs to put you right".

"If one of your Boxing Day purchases is faulty, the retailer must put things right. You don't need the original packaging to return the product."

If shoppers did get into difficulty and could not get redress at the store, they could take a complaint to the Commerce Commission, or take the matter to the disputes tribunal, at a cost of $61.

The filing fee was non-refundable, even if the tribunal found in the customer's favour, and could be a barrier, Walker said.

Walker also warned of "dark patterns" while online shopping - digital methods designed to encourage people to spend more than they intended, like countdown timers or warnings of low or rapidly diminshing stock.

"These tactics play on our FOMO [fear of missing out] and effectively encourage us to spend more, and quickly."

The deepest discount or top of the range product did not necessarily mean a good deal, with Consumer product tests often finding the most expensive product was not necessarily the best.

"A big discount doesn't necessarily mean a good deal."

From March next year, gift cards would be required to have an expiry date at least three years from the date the card was sold.

Until then, Walker recommended keeping on top of expiry dates, which varied.

"Gift cards can come with really short expiry times, and people also put them in a drawer and lose them - our research has shown there's about $10 million dollars goes on unspent gift cards every year.

"If you're hitting the shops and think you've got a gift card lurking we would encourage people to hunt it out and find it so they don't end up giving a gift to the retailer - if you've got money there you can spend, we encourage people to use it before they lose it.

"Our advice is don't buy something unless you really need or want it. While the pull of the last sale of 2025 could be strong, the first sale of 2026 is probably less than a week away," Walker said.

Worldine transaction figures showed Christmas spending was down on 2024, with consumer spending for the first three weeks of December hitting just over $3 billion.

A survey of nearly 1100 Westpac customers earlier this month showed nearly three-quarters (73%) were either extremely or moderately concerned about the cost of living, little changed from last year, while a survey conducted by accounting software company MYOB found the ongoing pressures of the cost of living squeeze were pushing respondents to seek additional income sources or take on debt to pay for presents.

A third said their financial position was the same as it was this time last year, while 42% felt worse off, and a quarter felt better off.

More than half expected to spend about the same on gifts last year, and 15% set to spend more, while more than a quarter planned to cut back.

To help cover costs, people were turning to side hustles or additional income sources, credit or buy-now-pay-later options.

While the latest StatsNZ figures showed a small drop in food prices prompted by a fall in the cost of fruit and vegetables, overall food was 4.4% more expensive than this time last year.

Meanwhile, 18,000 jobs had been lost in the past year, and unemployment was sitting at 5.3%, a nine-year high.