Retailers are anticipating a boost in activity during today’s Boxing Day sales, despite tough economic conditions across Australia.
Australians are expected to spend a record $1.6 billion today, supported by higher demand from population growth and revived household spending after three interest rate cuts from the Reserve Bank.
Chief Industry Officer with the Australian Retailers Association (ARA), Fleur Brown, said there were encouraging signs for the retail sector.
“We’re anticipating a record result this year, up about 4 per cent over last year, which is good for retailers,” she said.
The Australian Retailers Association is predicting a 4 per cent increase in Boxing Day spending this year. (ABC News)
“The economic climate we’re in means that people are bargain hunting more. It is really about Australians trying to get their household budgets balanced.
“Australians are trying to have a lift and make sure they’re spending money wisely at times when things might be lower in price.”
Online shopping may keep many people at home, but the ARA said 80 per cent of purchases on Boxing Day were still made in store.
Boxing Day sales face competition from Black Friday sales, but are still a major driver of retail spending. (ABC News)
The emergence of Black Friday sales has not yet made the Boxing Day sales redundant, but has helped refine its purpose for retailers.
“It’s a true clearance event, Boxing Day, so retailers really have to move that stock out the door,” Ms Brown said.
“Black Friday is growing in popularity, but it’s also serving a role as that gift-buying period for Australians before Christmas.”
Ms Brown also said shoppers were more likely to find a true bargain on Boxing Day than they would during the Black Friday sales.
“If you’re looking for the pure percentage decrease, you might find Boxing Day in some categories is a higher percentage [reduction] and that’s because those items have to move,” she said.
There was only a modest trickle of shoppers when the Myer in Melbourne’s Bourke Street Mall opened its doors on Boxing Day. (ABC News)
It was a slow start to the shopping day in Melbourne’s Bourke Street Mall, with a polite trickle of shoppers entering stores rather than the stampedes of yesteryear.
“I haven’t come the last few years because of the kids, COVID and all that,” one shopper told the ABC.
“Normally, I used to come here around 5 o’clock in the morning and there used to be a queue outside and all that, but this year is a little bit quieter,” he said.
This Melbourne shopper was out early to grab a bargain in the Boxing Day sales. (ABC News: Nate Woodall)
Another shopper said she left the family at home and came into the CBD early to get a head start on other shoppers.
“The girls are a little bit older now so they’re still sleeping off the excitement of yesterday, so I came in nice and early to beat the rush,” she said.
“There wasn’t much of a rush anyway. I think everyone is shopping online.”
Shoppers have also been warned not to rush in to spending money on Boxing Day on something they might regret purchasing later.
University of Melbourne Professor of Law, Jeannie Paterson, said it was important to consider if an advertised discount was really what it seemed.
“The first thing to do is to slow down. I think Boxing Day sales, if we’ve got through Christmas, often we’re exhausted and we’re also in a hurry to find a good deal,” she said.
“So it’s worth just stopping and thinking and considering whether it really is a discount.
“The other thing that sometimes happens of course, is that old products or lower quality products are rolled out, and there’s a lot of fake products around online as well.”
