Sept 2025: The Recreation & Entertainment industry wins big
New Zealand's monthly retail spending DASHBOARD
Early each month we release our Retailwatch dashboard that offers a high-level view of retail trends showing customer spend across categories, online and in-store, of the previous month. Get the dashboard and insights delivered straight to your inbox by signing up today.
Retailwatch SEptember 2025 analysis
With "funflation" and Ozempic, is September’s Retailwatch report showing the first signs of a changing consumer landscape?
Rise in funflation
The biggest jump in September came from Recreation & Entertainment as Kiwi’s seemed to accept the increased cost of live events and other entertainment, also known as “funflation”1.
In the past months we’ve been tracking the steady rise in this category, which has now grown a staggering $85 million in two years, with the majority coming from online.
There have been many causes of this upwards trajectory including changes to offshore betting rules2, price increases for live events & streaming services3 and New Zealand’s booming game development industry4.
The Ozempic effect?
But it’s not all fun and games as Supermarkets and Health Goods & Services saw a decrease in spend in September after months of consistent growth. Although many families are still feeling the cost-of-living crisis5, perhaps these sectors are facing the first wave of GLP-1-altered shopping habits.
Ozempic and Wegovy reached Kiwi shores earlier this year6, but America was the first to experience changing buying habits7 as popularity for the drugs increased.
If uptake for the weight-loss medications grows, it’ll be interesting to see if New Zealand feels the effects across Food, Liquor, Clothing and Dining out.
Whether you’re adapting to the ever-evolving consumer market or not seeing the windfall from the Entertainment industry’s winnings, get in touch to see how we can help you understand your market share and drive growth.
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Sources:
1 Funflation and cost conscious consumers | Deloitte Insights
2 New Zealand racing industry secures future with new online betting laws
3 Netflix hikes prices AGAIN: here's how much you are now going to pay
5Half of Kiwis cut back on fruit and vegetables as costs rise | RNZ News
6 Ozempic-style weight loss drug finally coming to New Zealand | RNZ
7 Rise of GLP-1 weight loss drugs and consumer health: PwC
WHERE DOES THE RETAILWATCH DATA COME FROM?
Retailwatch is a joint initiative between Datamine and a Banking and Financial partner. This partner provides Datamine with anonymised and aggregated retail spend data; we apply algorithms and national / regional weightings in order to create the report. Retailer categories are taken from the Merchant Category Codes allocated by MasterCard and VISA. Monthly and Quarterly periods of 28 days and 91 days are used to ensure the same number of weekdays/weekends are included for comparisons.
Please note that the figures within the Retailwatch Dashboard are GST exclusive.
