Shoppers set to spend around $19.5bn at retail stores during the post-Christmas period: ARA

Australians are shopping at fever pitch levels despite the global Covid-19 pandemic and areas of lockdown across the country.

Australians are shopping at fever pitch levels despite the global Covid-19 pandemic and areas of lockdown across the country.. Photographer: Liam Kidston

Australians are shopping at fever pitch levels despite the global COVID-19 pandemic and areas of lockdown across the country, such as Sydney’s northern beaches and its CBD, with foot traffic at the nation’s biggest shopping centres strong but also a continuation of the shift to online.

Australian Retailers Association chief executive and former David Jones boss Paul Zahra, told The Australian there were pockets of slower activity especially in Sydney where the Premier had urged consumers not to rush the shops due to the recent COVID-19 outbreak, but that in Melbourne and elsewhere there was solid foot traffic.

Vicinity Centres chief operating officer Peter Huddle, whose major shopping assets include Australia’s largest centre, Chadstone, said customer visits for the Boxing Day sales were strong and that the company expected robust visitation numbers across the next few days of the post Christmas sales.

“We’ve seen strong and consistent customer visitation for the Boxing Day sales across the country, especially at our major destinational centres like Chadstone and our seven Direct Factory Outlets,” Mr Huddle told The Australian.

“Customers who are keen to grab a bargain are making the most of the long weekend shopping event with the most popular items including sporting apparel, electronics, homewares and youth fashion.

“Boxing Day, the traditional sales event on the Australian retail calendar, was the busiest day with strong traffic recorded again on Sunday and Monday.”

He said at Chadstone the shopping centre owner expected more than 300,000 customers through the doors across the three-day event, with lunchtime and the afternoon the busiest time.

“At Chadstone customers took advantage of the new contactless, pick-up service, Parcel Concierge with almost 300 collections made on Boxing Day alone,” he said.

The Australian Retailers Association is tipping shoppers, fuelled by government stimulus packages, wage subsidies, early access to superannuation and the pent up demand from months of lockdowns, to spend around $19.5bn at retail stores during the post-Christmas period – an increase of 3.9 per cent on a year ago.

“What we saw on Boxing Day was that it was morbidly quiet in Sydney CBD and the retailers were really concerned, and what we saw that was people were complying to the Premier’s announcement, so the queues of people we would have seen in the previous year on Christmas even didn‘t happen,” Mr Zahra said.

“Melbourne started off steadily and was steady all day, so the overall commentary was that traffic was down as expected predominantly it was worse in the Sydney CBD than any other state and there was a shift to online. Online was exceptionally busy over the Boxing Day sales day.”

On the online battlefront there was the usual price wars, especially over consumer electronics and gadgets which typically inspire heated competition online.

Fitbit bands were a popular fight among chains such as Big W, JB Hi-Fi, Officeworks and Kogan as well as the big foreign players such as Amazon and eBay. The popular game console Nintendo Switch was a centre of a price war, with retailers such as Amazon, JB Hi-Fi, Catch and Big W within a few dollars of each other.

Meanwhile, Mr Zahra said the forecasts are encouraging for retailers who’ve endured a disruptive year due to COVID-19.

“For many retailers, 2020 has been a year to forget, but things have certainly picked up with strong pre-Christmas sales and that’s now set to flow through to Boxing Day and into 2021,” Mr Zahra said.

“We know Australians love to snap up a bargain during the Boxing Day sales, and despite all the challenges that have been thrown at us, this year will be no different. The Australian economy is bouncing back – consumer confidence is on the rise, people are heading back to their favourite shops, and that’s reflected in these figures.”

The strongest growth in post-Christmas sales is expected in NSW (up 4.4 per cent to over $6.1bn) and Queensland (up 7.9 per cent to over $4.1bn). Post-Christmas sales in Victoria are forecast to be virtually unchanged from a year ago.

Retail expenditure growth is expected to be strongest in the categories of food (up 10.5 per cent to over $8.5bn) and household goods (up 12 per cent to over $3.5bn). However, other categories are still feeling the impact of COVID-19 with declines for hospitality (down 16.7 per cent to $2.2bn) and clothing, footwear and accessories (down 5.2 per cent to $1.4bn).

“These figures paint a picture of what Australians have been through this year. People are spending more time at home, so household goods and food sales are up, while Hospitality is down as venues operate with reduced capacity,” Mr Zahra said.