Boxing Day and post-Christmas sales tipped to push spending to record $16.1 billion

INCREASING dispensable incomes and the falling dollar is tipped to push Boxing Day and post-Christmas sales to a record $16.1 billion.

INCREASING dispensable incomes and the falling Australian dollar could jointly push Boxing Day and post-Christmas sales to a record $16.1 billion.

New research by the Australian Retailers Association and Roy Morgan Research predicts the spend-up — for both bricks and mortar and online retailers — to be 3.6 per cent better than last year.

NSW and Victoria are tipped to lead the retail rush, with prediction of a sales exceeding four per cent.

The dollar’s plunge is tipped to lure many shoppers away from international online shopping and back to Australian outlets, both online and in-store.

“Household goods (4 per cent) and food (3.6 per cent) categories are set to experience a small but significant jump in post-Christmas sales,’’ ARA executive director Russell Zimmerman said.

“Gift buying will be replaced by shoppers splurging on households items for themselves as well as dining out.”

And as the price of petrol drops, the ARA says household’s spending budgets grow.

NSW is expected to see post-Christmas sales climb by 4.2 per cent from last year to $5.04 billion, with Victoria forecast to see post-Christmas sales climb by 4 per cent from last year to $4.001 billion.

Queensland is tipped to see post-Christmas sales climb by 3.2 per cent from last year to $3.345 billion, whereas WA is expected to see post-Christmas sales climb by 2.3 per cent from last year to $1.887 billion.

SA is expected to see post-Christmas sales climb by 3.4 per cent from last year to $1.047 billion with Tasmania to see post-Christmas sales climb by 3.9 per cent from last year to 323 million.

NT is forecast to see post-Christmas sales climb by 3.2 per cent from last year to $177 million with the ACT to see post-Christmas sales climb by 1.2 per cent from last year to $286 million.

But the hardest-hit sector will be apparel, which is expected to see a -0.3 per cent fall post-Christmas compared to last year.

Mr Zimmerman says it has already struggled because of the lack of “consistently-warm weather”.

“We are very weather-driven on clothing and footwear and maybe the weather has not been conducive to seeing good clothing and sales to footwear happening in the past,’’ he said.

“My reading of pre-Christmas sales also tells me clothing and footwear has struggled.

“We have got some very keen prices from retailers coming out from other countries such as H & M.”

St George Bank chief economist Besa Deda said the low-interest rate environment, combined with falling fuel prices, should lead to Australians spending more post-Christmas.

“Retail sales grew by 0.4 per cent in October following on from September which was the biggest growth in five years at 1.3 per cent,’’ she said.

“Low interest rates, firm population growth and also the upswing in housing is helping underpin the growth in retail spending.

“But there are some risks to the outlook including the depressed consumer sentiment readings and soft income growth.”

It’s expected many of the larger retailers will begin their post-Christmas sales at 6pm AEST on Christmas Eve — a move which they have done for the past two years.