Spending for the first three weeks of December increased 6.9 per cent on the same period last year, says Paymark.
The company, which processes around three quarters of New Zealand's electronic transactions, said shoppers spent more than $3.5 billion on their eftpos cards during that period.
Last Friday was the busiest day of the year so far, with $235.6 million through the tills, up 5.7 per cent on the same day in 2012.
Paymark head of sales and marketing Paul Whiston said the annual growth rate slowed throughout December, which could indicate better planning, or shoppers relying on the next two days to get everything done.
In Otago spending was up 6.6% from $170 million to $181 million.
