Covid weary shoppers stay home for Boxing Day sales to hop online

The surge in Covid-19 infections just before Christmas – particularly in NSW – looks to have cast a pall over traditional Boxing Day sales.

Paige Oliver celebrates outside Westfield in the Sydney CBD after some Boxing Day shopping. Picture: Monique Harmer

The surge in Covid-19 infections just before Christmas – especially in NSW with more than 5000 cases in a day, mandatory masks indoors and a renewed vigilance among shoppers in the face of the Omicron strain – looks to have cast a pall over Boxing Day sales.

Although this might have constrained the traffic at busy shopping centres and CBDs, it didn’t hold back the enthusiasm for online shopping, with anecdotal evidence and feedback from retail CEOs that many consumers had switched their shopping habits from bricks and mortar stores to online this year.

Before the Omicron strain swamped the nation and blanketed it in fresh outbreaks and record infection rates, industry analysts had predicted Boxing Day sales could approach $4bn this year, and while this could be within reach it might take a herculean effort by online shopping sites to get there.

Scott Evans, the chief executive of fashion retailer Mosaic Brands, whose portfolio of bricks and mortar stores includes Noni B, Katies, Millers, Rivers and Autograph, is predicting more subdued Boxing Day sales for the nation’s retailers and believes consumers became more cautious as Covid-cases started to take off again in NSW and Victoria.

“The week before Christmas showed a step forward – it was better. The last week was good, Monday, Tuesday, but then people started to get a little bit nervous towards the end of the week. This was as Covid-19 cases rose and as we hit 5000 cases in NSW we started to see (consumer confidence) begin to wobble,” Mr Evans said.

“We are hearing a lot of people aren’t just coming in.

“Masks came in to NSW too – masks made it harder to shop, especially when it comes to fashion, and the traffic just started to slow from that straight away.

“People might have money in their savings accounts of course, but just because they do have money in their accounts doesn‘t mean they can spend it … I am not hearing anybody that has smashed the lights out.”  

Shoppers hit the sales in Melbourne CBD on Monday. Picture: NCA NewsWire/David Crosling

He added that Mosaic Brands’ online platforms were doing a roaring trade, giving further credence to the theory people were staying away from crowded shopping centres and preferring to let their fingers do the walking across their laptops and smart phones.

Australian Retailers Association CEO Paul Zahra said it was likely the rise of Omicron and rapid spread in states such as NSW had helped to suppress traffic numbers in shopping centres and bricks and mortar stores but that many consumers had also nimbly pivoted to shopping online.

“What we are hearing from retailers is that for Boxing Day the crowds built slowly as the day went on.

“Major retailers don’t do the door-buster sales any more, and it was a very seamless day with no major incidents reported, and all the retailers reported they traded to expectations,” Mr Zahra said.

“Omicron and Covid would have played on people’s minds, but all the retailers I spoke to said they had a record online.”

But it wasn’t just Covid-19 playing havoc with consumer confidence and retail sales, with Mr

Evans arguing that Boxing Day falling on a Sunday this year would dampen the sales momentum.

Australian Retailers Association CEO Paul Zahra: ‘Omicron and Covid would have played on people’s minds, but all the retailers I spoke to said they had a record online.’

“You also have the issue of a Saturday versus a Sunday. It is a lot different. We always believe that when you have Boxing Day on a Sunday it will be poor. It is what it is, because traditionally people don’t do as much shopping on a Sunday as they do on a Friday or a Saturday,” Mr Evans said.

“If Christmas Day falls on a Tuesday, Wednesday or a Thursday you will have a really good Christmas because everyone breaks up on the Friday beforehand, so they have two or three days off before Christmas … this time Boxing Day on a Sunday is always a hard one.

“I am a bit cautious. Boxing Day on a Sunday is never great and you can see a lot of consumers being a bit conservative, not coming into shopping centres. The traffic could be a bit less.”

Mr Zahra said he didn’t believe the day of the week that Boxing Day fell on would have much of an impact on sales, and that the lead up to Christmas was more important.

Highpoint shopping centre, Victoria‘s third-largest shopping centre and the fifth-biggest in Australia, said it had welcomed over 1.7 million customers since Black Friday, and over 400,000 customers in the week of Christmas and Boxing Day.

It found that customers showed an increased preference for evening shopping this year, with more customers visiting after dark to take advantage of extended trading hours until midnight and 2am in the week before Christmas.

GPT regional general manager Rachel Duggan said Highpoint continued to be the largest retail destination west of Melbourne’s CBD, with shoppers showing an increased preference for late night shopping prior to Christmas, and returning for Boxing Day, which remains Highpoint’s largest single-day sale event of the year.

Ruslan Kogan, founder and CEO of online marketplace Kogan.com, said online shopping remained a key driver of growth for the nation’s retail sector and this was especially true through the pandemic.

Kogan.com CEO Ruslan Kogan: ‘Aussie shoppers are starting to catch up to more advanced economies in realising the benefits of shopping from the comfort of their couches.’ Picture: Hollie Adams

“We all know that online retail booms during the online-focused shopping events like Black Friday and Cyber Monday,” he said, “but it’s great to see that even the traditional bricks and mortar sales events like Boxing Day are producing huge spikes in online sales.”

Mr Kogan said the once popular feat of standing outside a store on Boxing Day to sprint through the door as it was opened was over.

“We can officially declare the news stories showing crowds out the front of department stores on Boxing Day waiting for them to open a thing of the past. Aussie shoppers are starting to catch up to more advanced economies in realising the benefits of shopping from the comfort of their couches — they can avoid crowds and parking lots and shop great deals while watching the Aussies take it to the Brits in the Ashes.”

He said some of the big sellers he was seeing at the moment were AirPods, iPhones, LED TVs and whitegoods.

Originally published as Covid weary shoppers stay home for Boxing Day sales to hop online