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- The biggest shopping event of the year is expected to be even bigger, with the Black Friday sales expected to top last year’s record breaking result
- Australia Post is preparing for a big weekend, with 2.2 million households grabbing a bargain
- Earlier this month, the Click Frenzy sales drove 16 per cent online shopping spike
- CommBank research showed majority of customers are keen to take advantages of discounted products and services
Australians are set to spend this weekend as the Black Friday shopping sales are expected to be the biggest one yet.
Australia Post is forecasting people will flock to this year’s Black Friday/Cyber Monday sales with purchasers expect to outnumber last year’s event.
Last year 2.2 million households grabbed a deal in the four days to Cyber Monday and this year is tipped to be even bigger, with the Click Frenzy sales going up 16 per cent online shopping spike two weeks ago.
Last November was the biggest month in Australian online shopping history, up more than 55 per cent on the previous year, with most of the orders coming from the Black Friday weekend.
Australians spent more than $5.57 billion last November and the record-breaking number is expected to be beaten this year.
Australia Post Executive General Manager Business, Government and International Gary Starr said he is expecting Australians to take advantage of the sales and get their Christmas presents sorted early.
“We know people are keeping a close eye on the big online sales events and planning ahead for what they want to buy, so we’re expecting this year to be huge,” Mr Starr said.
“Immediately following last year’s bumper cyber sales weekend we saw two of our busiest days ever, handling 3.22 million parcels on December 1 and 3.12 million on December 2.
“And to make sure we get these purchases to people’s doors as quickly as possible we’ve set ourselves up with 30 per cent more processing capacity, more planes in the air, and thousands of extra people to sort and deliver parcels, including weekends and twilight deliveries where they’re most needed,” he concluded.
Commonwealth Bank (CBA) is also expecting this weekend to be a big one for sales.
Head of Consumer and Diversified Industries in CBA’s Business Banking division, Jerry Macey, said the increase in spending in 2020 was pleasing, especially considering the country was in the middle of a global health pandemic.
“The increase in sales in 2020 in comparison to 2019 bodes well for the Black Friday sales this coming weekend,” he said.
“Shoppers across the country are increasingly taking advantage of the recent move towards pre-Christmas discounting and we would expect this trend to continue this year.”
However, it’s just not spending trends of previous years that have merchants eagerly anticipating the weekend ahead, CommBank research showed the majority of customers are keen to take advantage of discounted products and services.
As per the latest CommBank shopping insights, 82 per cent of Aussies will try to make the most of any discount or rewards, while 80 per cent said they are encouraged to shop again at those retails offering discounts or rewards.
