Crowds have flocked to shopping centres and department stores around the country for Boxing Day bargains, with sales expected to hit $2.3 billion according to the Australian Retailers Association.

Retailers were happy with the deluge of consumers across the country said Russell Zimmerman, ARA executive director. “Every year Boxing Day crowds seem to expand, and this year’s crowd certainly did not disappoint,” he said.

“We predicted retailers would trade over $2.3 billion this Boxing Day, and judging by the increase of people in stores, I think we may have hit the mark.”

On Boxing Day, Myer launched their biggest Stocktake Sale, and estimated 1.6 million customers flooded through their doors. This equates to over 140,000 people entering Myer stores every hour on the first day of the stocktake sale, including over 900,000 transactions on day one of the sale

Myer is expected to process over 7.3 million transactions throughout its entire stocktake sale period with approximately 20.7 million customers expected to shop with the department store during the period.

While department stores traded well, shopping centers like Melbourne Central – which expected to see over 230,000 people pass through its doors on Boxing Day – surpassed its own foot traffic predictions.

Melbourne Central recorded strong Boxing Day sales, with traffic up 4.5 per cent on last year with 242, 438 customers visiting the centre to hunt down a bargain on what is traditionally the biggest sale day of the year. The GPT Group-owned centre said both its management and retailers were ‘delighted with the good sales performance, providing a high note on which to end the year’. GPT expects post-Christmas sales  to see over 900,000 people pass through the centre until the 31 December. It said trade for the month of December has been healthy so far, with traffic up +11 per cent on 2015 to date.

Meanwhile 130,000 shoppers raced through the doors at Highpoint Shopping Centre on Boxing Day, with the centre expecting  two million customers through its doors in December.

Australian Retailers Association data

“Highpoint’s Christmas trading hours have been set based on guest and retailer feedback from 2015 and include three more days of extended trade than 2015, providing customers with even more opportunities to shop at a time convenient to them leading up to Christmas,: said Ryan Ling, Highpoint centre manager.

‘Boxing Day is only the start of the sale period, and we anticipate this shopping spree to continue for the next two or three weeks,” said Zimmerman.

The ARA and Roy Morgan Research expect shoppers to spend $17.2 billion from December 26 to January 15 2017. The category tipped to enjoy the biggest increase in year on year sales in the next three weeks will be ‘hospitality’ at 6.8 per cent growth, which is reflective of people enjoying their holidays and spending money at cafes and bars.

Following hospitality, other categories expected to show a big increase over the next three weeks in year on year sales will be the ‘other’ category at 3.2 per cent growth, and ‘apparel’ at a 3 per cent increase.

On a state basis, NSW will be the big winner, with year on year growth of 3.6 per cent growth for the period encompassing 26 December 2016 to 15 January 2017.

 See below for more stocktake sale predictions by department store retailer Myer:

-On Christmas Eve, Myer store team members will remove more than 40,000 square metres of Myer Christmas and Giftorium fit outs including 11,500 Christmas decorations and 5,000 Christmas trees

-More than 3,500 banners and 283,000 individual offer signs will go up for the Stocktake Sale

-Team members will fill over 8,800 shifts on the first day of the sale and over 140,000 shifts throughout the sale

WOMENSWEAR

In the first week of its stocktake sale, Myer expects to sell more than:

– 65,000 dresses – brands include Wayne Cooper, Cooper St, Wish, Basque, and Piper

-450,000 items of intimate apparel and hosiery

– 50,000 pairs of women’s shoes

– 45,000 handbags and women’s wallets

MENSWEAR

-45 business shirts a minute on Boxing Day and more than 155,000 business shirts over the entire the sale

– 1,500 suits on Boxing Day and 10,000 suits over the duration of the sale

KITCHENWARE, HOMEWARES – BED & BATH

Over the entire Stocktake Sale, Myer expects to sell more than:

– 40,000 items of loose cookware

– 100,000 kitchenware tools and gadgets

-60,000 sheet sets

– 140,000 bath towels

– 75,000 pillows

– 5,000 beds

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