Australians are expected to spend more than $2.62 billion on Boxing Day in 2019, the biggest ever on record according to the National Retail Association.

The estimate is 5.2 per cent up on last year’s $2.5 billion, with NRA chief executive Dominique Lamb forecasting growth across every state.

“Boxing Day is one of the biggest days on the Australian shopping calendar and retailers across the country are bracing themselves for a shopping blitz,” Lamb said.

“Bargain prices can be found across retail brands of all shapes and sizes, but we also recommend that shoppers do their homework before embarking to the shops.”

Online is expected to make up about $655 million of the total this year – a 23.6 per cent growth on last year. Pure-play retailers will bring in $236 million, while omni-channel retailers will see $419 million spent.

New South Wales is expected to see $871 million run through its tills on Boxing Day this year, while Victoria follows closely behind with $825 million.

Queensland will see $441 million, Western Australia $221 million, South Australia $129 million, Tasmania $56 million, the ACT $54 million, and the Northern Territory $27 million.

While Boxing Day has long been one of, if not the, most important sales day on the Australian calendar, Black Friday has been rapidly growing – pulling sales forward in the holiday season, and giving customers an earlier opportunity to get holiday shopping done at a discount.

Strandbags managing director Felicity McGahan told Inside Retail that Black Friday kicked the holiday season off with a bang, and that while sales had flattened during the weeks following, McGahan believes Boxing Day will end the season on a high.

“We expect it to be outstanding,” McGahan said. “Black Friday was, and we always have an incredible Boxing Day.”

In preparation for this year’s event, Strandbags rolled out mobile point-of-sale devices to all its larger stores to keep customers flowing through during busy periods.

Australian Retailers Association executive director Russell Zimmerman visited Sydney CBD on Thursday morning, and said the centres were seeing reasonable crowds, but wasn’t as big as he’d seen in previous years, according to the AAP.

Zimmerman said it was possible pre-Christmas sales events could impact the importance of Boxing Day in the Australian retail calendar.

“[We’ve] just come through a period that has included Singles’ Day, Click Frenzy, Black Friday and Cyber Monday in quick succession, so the heavy traffic these events generated are likely to dampen post-Christmas demand,” Zimmerman said.

The ARA have predicted that Australians would spend $19 billion in the period between Boxing Day and January 15th, suggesting a quieter post-Christmas trade than the industry may have hoped for.

However, while this is a mild 2.3 per cent growth on the same period a year ago, there are signs of a rebound in 2020, with sales of household goods, clothing, footwear and accessories and department store trade forecasted to be stronger in the new year.

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