By Jessica Yun
Since early November, Bernie Brookes’ inbox has been steadily piling up with emails as retailers clamour to flaunt their deals and discounts on offer.
“It’s no longer Black Friday – it’s nearly a Black Friday month,” said Brookes, a former Myer chief executive and retail operator who rescued Colette by Colette Hayman and The Daily Edited out of administration.
Veteran retailer Bernie Brookes rescued Colette and The Daily Edited out of administration.Credit: Rhett Wyman
“You’re seeing offers for trips, you’re seeing airline [sales] … everybody’s got a Black Friday sale,” Brookes said. “Even Sydney Airport parking sent me a Black Friday offer.”
For Black Friday, the retail veteran slashed 40 per cent off both the accessories brands he operates and then 50 per cent off on Cyber Monday.
“Unfortunately, you have to be in the game, and you [have] got to be in the game aggressively. If you’re not, then you’re going to suffer significantly.”
Shopper expectations and demands for Black Friday deals have meant the end-of-year shopping period, which traditionally peaked in December for the Christmas and Boxing Day sales, has begun earlier and earlier each year. Retailers that once upon a time planned for a few weeks or a month’s worth of sales now need to plan for nearly two.
“Black Friday sales is a pull-forward of a lot of Christmas sales,” Brookes said. “Christmas is not as strong as it used to be because you’ve sold a lot of the merchandise, normally at a reduced price, on Black Friday.”
With Black Friday sales now starting earlier and running longer than ever before, the four-day shopping spike between Black Friday and Cyber Monday isn’t as sharp for some as it once was. Boxing Day is also now widely panned as having lost its mojo to Black Friday.
“The thing that we’re seeing now is that it’s just flattening out over a longer time duration,” said Tyler House, who heads marketing at Melbourne-based leather and accessories brand Bellroy.
Bellroy creates bags such as carry-on luggage designed to be highly functional, with pockets, compartments and straps galore. Credit:
“We’re seeing a lot of companies go much earlier in November, before Black Friday, and even deals that are happening after Black Friday and into the Christmas season. [We’re also seeing] even more aggressive discounts on top of that.”
This year, Bellroy gave loyal customers an additional 5 per cent off on top of the general markdown.
Bellroy takes a conservative approach to sales: while it runs Christmas promotions, that period is not its biggest sales event of the year. After years of pressure on household budgets from elevated living expenses, customers are drawing up wish lists and waiting until discounts drop before they check out their cart.
Even Bellroy, which doesn’t hold sitewide sales any other time of the year, makes an exception for Black Friday.
“It really comes back to what the customer is expecting, and us listening to them about when they are shopping, the value that they’re looking for, and us making sure that we can meet the customer where they are,” House said.
“It’s probably different for other businesses, but I think for us, that really is prime during the Black Friday period, and less so during the Christmas period.“
Consumers have responded: In the space of four years, revenue from Black Friday has doubled. “Four years ago, [our chief technology officer] had journalled: ‘We just hit a record sales day’. Now, looking back, that’s less than half of what we’re hitting now.”
“We don’t want them to have that fear of missing out, or ‘I could buy it, but am I going to wait for something better?’ This is it.”
Christmas surprise: Retail roars back to life
For many discretionary retailers, the end-of-year holiday trading period is a decisive one where two-thirds of the entire year’s profit is earned. “These three months [November, December and January] make or break retail for profitability,” Brookes said.
This year, Australian shoppers rushed to fill their carts and swooped upon deals beyond what retailers expected. In fact, Cyber Monday outdid Black Friday, with Shopify data showing sales peaked at 9pm on Monday evening. Australia was the third-highest top-selling country across the globe, with 14 per cent more Australians shopping from Shopify merchants across those four days than last year, spending an average of $199.12, an uptick of 23 per cent.
On Black Friday, The Iconic delivered 120,000 items a day, or an average of two packages a second. This year, Cyber Monday exceeded Black Friday itself, taking the online retailer – which refers internally to the sales period as “Black November” – by surprise.
“That’s a testament to the longer time period that the customer is in the headspace of wanting to get some bargains. We talk about it as a bit of a marathon of sales,” said Joanna Robinson, The Iconic’s chief marketing officer.
To encourage those who shopped during Black Friday sales to return for Christmas and Boxing Day, retailers have had to differentiate their offers. Consumers who were buying gifts for others during the four-day sales period are now starting to shop for themselves and for summer, with party dresses, party shoes, swimwear and holiday clothing ticking up, Robinson added.
“Talking to other retailers, everyone knew that after such a tough year, customers were ready to have a little bit more fun,” she said. “Everyone’s been really tight with their money over the last year, and there’s this real change in sentiment, where people are starting to spend again, starting to have some fun.”
David Jones “pulses” its promotions across different categories – homewares and appliances one week, and then fashion the next – across the weeks and holds off on launching the latest ranges. “What we’ve done to really drive the Christmas peak for us post-Black Friday is more newness … across fashion, beauty and homewares,” chief executive Scott Fyfe said.
“We’re really trying to create two peaks, one which is Black Friday, and the second one which is obviously ... that weekend before Christmas and a couple of days before Christmas.”
The Stanley cup was a popular purchase during this year’s Black Friday sales.Credit: Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
Dyson products, Stanley and Frank Green cups, beauty products and Kim Kardashian’s shapewear Skims flew off the shelves during the Black Friday-Cyber Monday window, Fyfe said. Boxer briefs and shorts, moisturisers, nail polish, makeup and sunscreen were in high demand, Shopify data shows. Online sales, which normally make up 20 per cent of David Jones purchases, rose to 30 per cent this year.
Meanwhile, Boxing Day has been historically regarded as a chance to clear the decks for the new year.
“What we do on Boxing Day is clearing a lot of merchandise,” Brookes said. “Because it’s been around for a long time, there’s a lot of engineered product … What that means is you get your suppliers to create a two pack of shirts [and] supply, say, a product that you don’t normally sell, and put that into the Boxing Day sale.”
While more retailers than ever have jumped aboard the mega-sales events, some, such as Mecca, are making a point not to – though not every brand can pull this off.
“You’re always going to get these that are immune to discounting ... they’ve got really strong brands,” Brookes said.
While some economists have said retailers can’t discount forever, it seems that discount frenzy has entered the psyche of Australian consumers.
“Customers have an expectation that they’re going to buy things at 20, 30, 40 per cent off – and full credit to them. They know where to go and how to do it. It’s now become a norm rather than an occasion.”
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