Canstar has announced that the results of its survey for Most Satisfied Customers in the Online Retailers category reveal Mighty Ape as the winner.

Canstar surveyed 1644 people, and Mighty Ape won the award for the fourth consecutive year.

Canstar notes that the pandemic has strongly influenced New Zealanders' shopping habits, with 48% of respondents saying that COVID-19 has resulted in them spending more time and money shopping online.

Furthermore, Canstar notes this figure is heavily skewed towards women, with more than half of female respondents saying they are spending more in the digital environment, compared to 44% of male respondents.

Founded in 1992, interactive online research service CANSTAR (formerly CANNEX) is Australia and New Zealand's premier researcher of retail finance information.

The company provides insights for over 250 institutions, including Banks, Building Societies, Credit Unions, Finance Companies, Brokers, Mortgage Originators, Life Companies and finance-related Internet Portals.

"The rise in online shopping is no surprise given the impact of the pandemic; what we'll be watching now is how online retailers respond and evolve," Canstar NZ General Manager Jose George says.

"Mighty Ape's repeated wins over the years, and through the pandemic, show how it has risen to the challenge so far.

"Being able to do this will define the future of so many businesses."

Additional findings from Canstar's survey concluded that around one in five New Zealanders aged under 50 do "nearly all" of our shopping online, with clothes the most popular item bought from a website.

Among younger Kiwis, more than three quarters bought their wardrobe from online outlets.

Health and beauty items and homewares were also popular, with nearly half of respondents saying they would purchase them online.

Of the 1644 respondents, 70% said convenience was their main reason for online shopping, while almost 60% said they shopped online as it was easy to find what they were looking for.

However, not everybody's online shopping experience was positive, with 30% saying they bought something that didn't look like the picture.

30% of respondents also said they had bought something that didn't show up, while 32% worried about the security of the payment systems.

Canstar adds that the single biggest driver of customer satisfaction is the speed of delivery, followed by value for money and ease of navigation through the website, and that Mighty Ape scored five stars in all three of these areas.

"COVID-19 has represented some unique challenges," Mighty Ape Chief Sales and Marketing Gorilla Gracie MacKinlay says.

"Besides external disruptions from the supply chains and courier networks, there are also internal challenges.

"We share information across departments and help out to improve our service. For example, we had our sales team helping our customer support, marketing team helping out with our Jungle Express deliveries, design team picking orders in our warehouse.

"It's heartwarming to see how closely we work together. We haven't nailed everything, but we work hard to be better."

The survey also showed how much online shopping now dominates our experiences, with nearly 60% of New Zealanders using international websites to purchase goods.

Canstar says this amounts to spending more than $7 billion online, with the average online shopper spending 22% more over the year.