Christmas Eve has retained its title as the busiest shopping day of the year, but the peak hour was well down on previous years.

Payments network Worldline NZ recorded 563,303 transactions between noon and 1pm today.

That was lower than the 607,299 transactions recorded in the same hour on Christmas Eve last year.

The number of transactions in the peak hour has fallen in recent years as consumers have faced pressure from the high cost of living and rising unemployment.

In 2020, some 678,812 transactions were made between noon and 1pm on Christmas Eve.

The peak-hour total fell to 660,815 in 2021, 650,909 in 2022 and 626,692 in 2023.

The peak minute for spending today was 12.13pm when 9745 transactions were processed.

A slowdown in spending also emerged in this year’s Black Friday sales data.

Figures released by Worldline NZ showed spending through core retail merchants selling non-food goods reached $55.6 million on November 28, 2025.

Non-food goods spending on Black Friday alone was down 6.2% compared with last year and fell 4.6% for the three-day weekend.

Worldline NZ’s chief sales officer Bruce Proffit said while Black Friday sales brought out many shoppers, the pattern across the weekend was consistent with spending on non-food goods, which ran below year-ago levels over other weeks of November.

“It appears that consumer budgets are still constrained at this end of the year. Clothing merchants experienced higher spending than Black Friday 2024 over the weekend but spending elsewhere was generally down,” Proffit said.

Retailers will be hoping shoppers come out in force on Boxing Day. Some had already begun advertising specials before Christmas.

Homewares retailer Briscoes started its “Boxing Day sale” five days out from Christmas.

Other retailers, such as Farmers, begin Boxing Day sales online on Christmas Day and in-store the day after.