We have been advised that Auckland City Council will be running the retail spend analysis project again and will have Marketview data coming out to us within the next two months.

In 2005/2006 the council commissioned research on retail spend data captured from BNZ customers using their debit and credit cards for goods and services in each of the 17 mainstreets & town centres.

With BNZ claiming a market share of approximately 15% this was an excellent tool to give an indicative view of where customers are coming from, age and gender, transaction values, store category and more. The BNZ is the only bank in New Zealand to capture debit and credit card spend.

The initial reporting will comprise three periods of twelve months covering the period from July 2006 to June 2009. The ongoing reports will then be generated on a quarterly basis.

Data will include a number of other business and shopping areas around the Auckland region (in addition to the 17 mainstreets/town centres) to give a broader view - Mt Albert, Pt Chevalier, Kingsland, Balmoral, Three Kings, Mission Bay, Royal Oak, Albany/Sylvia Park, St Lukes/Botany, Grey Lynn and West Lynn.

The annual report for each main street and the overall report will include maps, annual spend and transactions by store type, age group, sex and decile. National and regional data will be included to provide a comparative performance measure for town centre performance.

The quarterly report will provide an update on the annual report but at a higher level, showing monthly spending and transaction trends for merchants in specific centres. Origin of customers will be included.