Online retail sales rebounded in September, breaking a downward trend which has persisted most of the past year.
The Bank of New Zealand's latest survey shows total online spending was up 13 percent in the latest month, with domestic spending rebounding from near zero growth to being up 9 percent, while international spending jumping 20 percent.
Online domestic spending growth was more than twice the 5 percent growth of total retail sales.
BNZ's institutional research director, Gary Baker, said stand-out categories with growth above 20 percent included electrical and electronic goods.
He said the statistics show a break in trend, especially for the domestic online merchants, after their growth rate had gone down to zero.
Mr Baker said to see the spending rate rebound and be 9 percent higher than it was during the same month last year is quite encouraging.
He believes the rebound is due to a number of reasons.
Mr Baker said there was a big online promotion last month, while August was a soft month for spending, which could have meant the money shifted to September.
And he said the launch of the iPhone last month could have contributed to the spending.