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Buying cheap goods on foreign shopping websites like Temu and Shein appears to have become a new normal.

Latest figures from Stats NZ show imports of low-value goods, purchased directly by households, increased by almost a third last year, and have more than doubled since before the pandemic.

That coincided with a broader rise in e-commerce, with NZ Post recording a 9% increase in online shopping last year.

Kiwibank economist Sabrina Delgado said it was a “remarkable shift” over a short period of time.

Low-value imports increased 17.9% in the first three months of last year alone, following a 10.7% rise in the previous three months.

“That is starting to slow down now and stabilise, but we’re seeing that actually flattening out at these new higher levels,” Delgado said.

The change is being felt by local retailers like The Warehouse, which did well during previous recessions but reported falling earnings during last year’s downturn.

Retail NZ Chief Executive Carolyn Young said a site like Temu is able to buy direct from the manufacturer and sell at prices New Zealand businesses struggle to compete with.

“It’s generally targeting at that lower price point, so all of the businesses that trade in and around that space are really feeling the impact,” she said.

Delgado said Temu had launched as a global disruptor at a time when people were shopping more online and more conscious of saving money.

“Financial conditions here domestically were quite tight and inflation was running quite high, so it wasn’t really too much of a surprise to see people really looking elsewhere for cheaper deals and cheaper prices.”

Talking to MPs last year, Reserve Bank Chief Economist Paul Conway said the ‘Temu effect’ was one of several factors affecting the reliability of economic data.

“There’s a large volume of low-value packages coming across the border into the country,” he said.

Nicola Growden, Stats NZ’s Acting General Manager of Macroeconomic Statistical Delivery, said the agency was continuously looking at how it could improve its data.

“The economy has been quite dynamic in recent years with Covid-19 disruptions and recovery, disruptions to seasonal patterns of production and consumption, and large price changes.”

Growden said the agency regularly seeks feedback, looks for additional data sources, and is investing in a new system for calculating price indexes.

“With a dynamic economy comes dynamic economic data, and we’re confident that we’ve responded in the most robust and transparent way possible.”