If you thought your Boxing Day shopping experience was a bit busier than usual, you're probably not alone.

Kiwis spent $139 million via the Paymark EFTPOS network during Boxing Day - up 6.4 per cent on last year.

Paymark, which process more than 75 per cent of the country's electronic transactions, said when the food and hospitality purchases were taken out of the equation then spending was up by even more, growing by 8.3 per cent on 2016.

Spending at department stores was up 67.9 per cent on last year, while purchases at appliance stores was up 52.7 per cent, and the spend at home decorating stores jumped 38.1 per cent.

It was a mixed bag for clothing shops, down 5.1 per cent in Auckland and Northland but up in Wanganui, Marlborough, Otago, Taranaki and Bay of Plenty, Paymark said.

Regionally, Auckland only grew by about 3.7 per cent and Wellington by 2.4 per cent, while some smaller areas received a huge boost. Sales in the West Coast were up 25.7 per cent and Marlborough up 24.4 per cent on last year

The holiday shopping period will be a relief for retailers, as it shows that online sales won't kill off people's drive to bargain hunt in actual stores.

Amazon Australia is among the web retailers trying to entice buyers with online Boxing Day price slashing, while many Kiwis were listing unwanted Christmas gifts as soon as they were opened.

Retail New Zealand's Greg Harford said retailers do need to be online to survive.

"They also need to have a bricks and mortar presence in many cases. Customers are looking for that. They want to be able to touch and feel things."