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| Information about the Electronic Card Transactions (ECT) |
Availability
| Valid From: .. | 10/01/2002 |
| To: .. | Ongoing |
| Frequency: .. | Monthly |
Design
Purpose: Electronic Card Transactions provide timely census information on debit and credit card spending with New Zealand based merchants. These in turn may provide information on consumer spending and economic activity in general. The data have the potential to create new statistics to better meet users' needs. The objective of the Electronic Card Transactions project is to produce timely card spending statistics without significant additional burden on businesses in New Zealand.
General Information ..
Background
Statistics New Zealand has released an experimental monthly series, the Electronic Card Transaction (ECT) series, which covers all debit and credit card spending with New Zealand-based merchants. This information can be used as an indicator of the change in the level of consumption expenditure and economic activity in general.
Statistics on electronic card transactions are produced monthly from aggregated data generated in the process of administering all New Zealand-based electronic transactions. The data are supplied in a highly aggregated form and are inclusive of GST.
Coverage
Inclusions:
- all debit, credit and charge card transactions with New Zealand based merchants
- card-present transactions at the point of sale, whether authorised by PIN or signature
- card-not-present transactions (payments of invoices, mail order, telephone and internet sales via credit card, direct debit from credit cards, etc) – where the card is not presented directly at a point of sale terminal
- GST.
Exclusions:
- all credit card transactions with non-New Zealand-based merchants, via the Internet, telephone mail order, etc
- transactions by New Zealand card holders while overseas
- cash, cheque or hire purchase transactions
- automatic payments or direct debits from bank accounts
- Internet bank account payments
- withdrawals from ATMs.
Notes:
- Cash out is included in the data from one of the respondent companies, but excluded from the other.
- Manual, voucher-based credit card transactions are included by one of the respondents, but excluded by the other.
Industry classifications:
- The data are provided by the respondents in a highly aggregated form, based on their individual industry classifications.
- These classifications are then concorded to a standard industry classification, ANZSIC96 (Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification 1996).
- The following industry classes are included in the data:
| C | Manufacturing |
| D | Electricity, gas and water supply |
| E | Construction |
| F | Wholesale Trade |
| G | Retail Trade |
| H | Accommodation, cafes and retaurants |
| I | Transport and storage |
| J | Communication services |
| K | Finance and insurance |
| L | Property and business services |
| M | Government administration and defence |
| N | Education |
| O | Health and other community services |
| P | Cultural and recreational services |
| Q | Personal and other services |
Published levels
Data are published at three levels of aggregation. These are:
- Electronic Card Transactions – total
- Includes data for all industry classes available; a census of all electronic transactions.
- Electronic Card Transactions – retail industry
- A subset ot total electronic card transactions covering the following ANZSIC industries: retail trade (ANZSIC division G), accommodation, cafes and restaurants (ANZSIC division H) and personal services (ANZSIC subdivision 95 of division Q).
- Electronic Card Transactions – core retail industry
- A subset of retail electronic card transactions, excluding the motor vehicle related industries (ANZSIC Groups G531 motor vehicle retailing and G532 motor vehicle services).
The following series are published for each of the aggregations:
- values – actual (unadjusted), seasonally adjusted and trend
- volumes – actual (unadjusted).
Differences between Electronic Card Transactions (ECT) and the Retail Trade Survey (RTS)
A significant proportion of spending using debit and credit cards takes place in the retail sector. The Retail Trade Survey (RTS) also collects sales information about the retail sector from a monthly sample of retail establishments. Given the similarities in coverage of the two series, it is expected that they may be compared with each other. Users should be aware however that there are a number of differences between the two series that affect comparison between them. These are described below:
Coverage
The RTS includes payments made by cash, cheque and hire purchase in addition to electronic card transactions:
GST
Electronic card transaction data collected includes goods and services tax (GST), whereas the RTS collects sales excluding GST.
Timing issues
- Electronic transactions occur instantly at the point of sale, whereas many retailers operate on accrual accounting (recording a sale before any money has changed hands). This can result in a lag between ETD and RTS.
- Installments on laybys may be paid electronically but are not recorded as a sale by the retailer until the goods are picked up.
- Gift vouchers may be purchased electronically but are not recorded as a sale until they are redeemed.
Classification issues
Statistics NZ has developed ECT series which relate to the industry coverage of the RTS. This has been done by matching the industry codes supplied by the respondents to classifications used by Statistics NZ. There are instances where the classification allocation used by the respondents differs from that used by Statistics NZ. This results in some coverage differences at the industry and overall retail level, and potentially some overstatement of ECT retail industry levels. The impact of this on ECT retail data levels cannot be fully assessed, as source data are only supplied in aggregate form, but retail levels are estimated to be overstated by less than five percent.
Changes in share of spending by electronic card transactions
Over the past few years the uptake of electronic transaction technology among retailers and other industries, and increasing card usage by consumers have led to an increasing share of retail sales by electronic card transactions, resulting in the ECT series having a much steeper trend than the RTS. This increase in share is slowing over time, particularly in industries where the availablility of the technology is approaching full coverage. However, it is still impacting significantly on the movements in electronic card transactions. Users should be aware that movements in electronic card transactions are overstated by this increasing share when comparing the ECT series with the RTS.
Seasonally adjusted series
The X12-ARIMA package has been used to produce the seasonally adjusted estimates and trend estimates for the three series: total, retail and core retail ECT. Seasonal adjustment aims to eliminate the impact of regular seasonal events (such as annual cycles in agricultural production, winter, or annual holidays) on time sereis. This makes the data for adjacent months more comparable.
All seasonally adjusted figures are subject to revision each month. This enables the seasonal component to be better estimated and removed from the series.
Estimated trend
For any series, the survey estimates can be broken down into three components: trend, seasonal and irregular. While seasonally adjusted series have the seasonal component removed, trend series have both the seasonal and irregular conmponents removed. Trend estimates reveal the underlying direction of movement in a series, and are likely to indicate turning points more accurately than the seasonally adjusted estimates.
The trend series are calculated using the X12-ARIMA seasonal adjustment package. They are based on an 11, 13 or 23 month moving average of the seasonally adjusted series, with an adjustment for outlying values.
Trend estimates towards the end of the series incorporate new data as they become available and can therefore change as more observations are added to the series. Revisions can be particularly large if an observation is treated as an outlier in one period, but is found to be part of the underlying trend as further observations are added to the series. Typically, only the estimates for the most recent month will be subject to substantial revisions.
Output Variables
Output variables are pieces of individual information that can be extracted from the survey/output data. Often output variables can be cross tabulated with other output variables, for example sales by industry classification. The list below contains all current and past output variables which have been released for this survey/output.
| Variable Name | Description |
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| Value | The value of sales of goods and services for the month. Sales are released aggregated at three different levels --
1. total transactions (all industries)
2. retail transactions (industries that are included in the Retail Trade Survey)
3. core retail transactions (RTS industries, excluding the motor vehicle related industires
Values are available as actual values, seasonally adjusted series (which removes seasonal effects) and a trend series (which removes seasonal and irregular effects) is also produced.
NB. Values are GST inclusive. |
| Volume | The number of individual transactions that make up the value of sales. |
| Month | Calendar reference month for which data is collected. |
Changes in Output Variables over time
Guide to Interpreting Data
Summary of Changes to Survey/Output ..The potential uses of electronic card transactions, more commonly known as eftpos, were first investigated by Statistics New Zealand in 1999 and this analysis was later updated in 2001. These investigations demonstrated that electronic card transactions may have potential to be a very timely leading indicator of retail spending. During the 1990s the uptake of the technology by merchants and consumers grew at a rapid rate and has continued to increase since then, albeit at a slower rate more recently.
Since 2003, Statistics New Zealand has been working with the respondents, to arrange the regular supply of data. The respondents have been supplying aggregated data on a monthly basis since 2004. The regular supply of the data has opened the way to more fully investigate its potential uses and to consider new statistics that could be developed using this data source.
In July 2005 Statistics NZ funded a project to investigate potential statistical uses of the data. The output of monthly series based on the aggregate data concludes stage one of this project.
A further stage of the project was to investigate the potential uses of the data for measuring activity in service industries outside of the retail industry. A key finding of this stage of the project is that the usage of eftpos in industries outside of retail is not significant enough, at this stage, to develop useful statistics.
Statistics NZ is continuing to work with the respondents to obtain more detailed data to be able to investigate other potential uses such as producing statistics on spending by region and origin of cardholder, including spending in New Zealand by overseas cardholders.
Usage and Limitations of the Data ..Electronic Card Transactions provide timely census information on debit and credit card spending with New Zealand based merchants, which may provide information on consumer spending and economic activity in general. It should be remembered, however, that the trend for ECT is increasing at a faster rate than the economy as a whole due to the increasing usage of the technology both by merchants and cardholders.
Limitations of the data:
1. At present, one respondent does not separate out cashout from its transaction values.
2. We are unable to validate the coverage of the classifications for particular industries as we don't know which merchants are included in each industry. This could have implications for any breakdown of the data based on industry classification.
Related Data Sources ..Other data that provides similar information:
- Retail Trade Survey
- Household Expenditure Survey
- Credit Card Billings (Reserve Bank series)
Sampling Errors ..There are no sampling errors as the data is a census of all transactions
Non-sampling errors Errors are possible in the following areas:
1. Missing data.
Statistics New Zealand has identified two significant possible scenarios. While this is not considered an exhaustive analysis of the possible errors which may arise, it is considered to cover the major forseeable events:
- A temporary system failure or power outage results in the inability by merchants to transact electronically. In this event transactions may occur by other means, customers may delay a purchase until the system is back online or may not purchase at all. This type of event is not strictly speaking an error, but may cause an irregularity in the series. As the ECT series covers all electronic transactions that actually occurred it will not be adjusted. This type of event is considered to be rare.
- A temporary system failure causes a data provider to be unable to provide statistical reporting for electronic transactions that have occurred. This would be a serious event for the data provider, and the likelihood of occurrence is considered to be low. The monthly dataset provided to Statistics New Zealand would not contain data for the whole month. This situation would be considered to impact the statistical validity of the output as defined, and Statistics NZ would work with the data provider to ascertain the impact to the series. Findings would be communicated as available and appropriate.
2. Incorrect industry code.
There are instances where the classification allocation used by the respondents differs from that used by Statistics NZ. This results in some coverage differences at the industry and overall retail level, and potentially some overstatement of ECT retail industry levels. The impact of this on ECT retail data levels cannot be fully assessed, as source data are only supplied in aggregate form, but retail levels are estimated to be overstated by less than five percent.
Caveats on Release ..Users who wish to use the Electronic Card Transactions series as an indicator of retail trade activity must be aware of the differences between the series that affect their comparability.
Catalogue & Reference Numbers
Other Comments
Classification(s) used
Glossary of Terms
Term
ANZSIC
Average transaction value
Average value of transactions
per person
Average number of transactions
per person | Description
Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification
The total value of transactions divided by the total number of transactions
The total value of transactions divided by the average resident population plus the average number of overseas visitors to New Zealand for the reference year.
The total value of transactions divided by the average resident population plus the average number of overseas visitors to New Zealand for the reference year. | |
| Card-not-present transaction | Purchase made using a credit card, via telephone or internet, (e.g. mail order) – when the card is not seen by the vendor or agent. | |
Cashout
Debit card
Debit transaction | Extra cash taken by the purchaser at point of sale. This amount is included in the full value of the transaction but can be identified separately.
Card used for debiting money directly from a bank account. Also commonly referred to as eftpos, cash or ATM card.
Where the purchaser pushes the cheque or savings button on the point-of-sale terminal. | |
eftpos transaction
Industry | eftpos = Electronic Funds Transfer at Point Of Sale. A purchase of goods or services using a debit, credit or charge card.
An industry consists of similar geographic units (GEOs) based on their predominant activity in terms of sales. The industry classification used is the ANZIND96 Inter-Industry level. | |
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| Trend Estimates | Trend series have had both the seasonal and irregular components removed. An example of an irregular event would be the change in expenditure caused by the introduction of GST. Trend estimates reveal the underlying direction of movement in a series and are likely to indicate turning points more accurately than seasonally adjusted estimates. | |
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Contact Details
Liability
Statistics New Zealand gives no warranty that the information or data supplied contains no errors. However, all care and diligence has been used in processing, analysing and extracting the information. Statistics New Zealand shall not be liable for any loss or damage suffered by the customer consequent upon the use directly, or indirectly, of the information supplied in this product.
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