Retailers across the board are preparing for Black Friday this week, with the four-day trading extravaganza set to account for more than 25% of holiday season sales.
Price-conscious shoppers will be doing their due diligence to find the best deals amid the ongoing cost-of-living crisis.
Findings from Salesforce, released by the Australian Retailers Association (ARA), found online shopping traffic is up 5% year-on-year but hasn’t driven a significant change in sales – suggesting consumers are doing their research, making their own price comparisons and shopping thoughtfully and cautiously.
Shoppers are tipped to spend $6.36 billion across the four-day Black Friday/Cyber Monday weekend (November 24 – 27), up 3.0% from last year according to research by the ARA, in partnership with Roy Morgan.
Despite a lukewarm spending projection for the pre-Christmas period, Black Friday this year is set to be record-breaking.
You can read more, here.
In other news, we recently welcomed several Government measures aimed to support small businesses during a tumultuous period.
The Federal Government on Monday announced a $7.2 million voluntary cyber health check program, which will allow businesses to undertake a free, tailored self-assessment of their cyber security maturity.
The ARA had previously advocated for support in this area, among a raft of broader resilience measures to help business work with governments to navigate these critical challenges.
In the past week, the NSW Government has also proposed reform to the Emergency Services Levy, reducing the cost of insurance premiums for SMBs.
These are welcome changes – but further industry support is needed. And the ARA will continue to advocate for this.
