Tech and supplements dominate Amazon Australia’s Black Friday

Dean Blake

3rd Dec 2019

Black Friday has delivered another solid boost to Australian retail trade in 2019, with Amazon Australia calling it the marketplace’s biggest shopping day to date.

According to Amazon, video game consoles once again dominated Black Friday shopping, with smart lights, kids toys, and health supplements delivering strong sales on the marketplace.

“We were delighted to see customers in Australia getting the most out of our tremendous deals making Black Friday the biggest shopping day in Amazon Australia’s history,” said Amazon Australia country manager Matt Furlong. 

Nintendo’s Switch console bundles and smart plugs were the best-selling products, while noise cancelling headphones, smart lights, PlayStation 4 games and Blackmores Vitamins and Supplements were named as the best-selling deals.

Chris Silvestro of Australian sunscreen brand Ethical Zinc, which held its Black Friday sales exclusively on Amazon, said sales spiked almost four times what it normally sees and that the business had broken all of its sales records for the month.

But, it wasn’t only online retailers that saw improved traffic. Chadstone director Fiona Mackensie said Black Friday drove foot traffic up 24 per cent at the shopping centre, while the Saturday and Sunday enjoyed foot traffic 8 per cent up on the prior year.

Nike’s factory outlet in Sydney’s West also saw hundreds of people queuing up to get to shop the store on Friday.

And while official numbers have not yet been released for industry-wide Black Friday sales, the National Retail Association believes Aussies will spend around $1.3 billion over the four days sales weekend.

“We’re seeing a growing trend with consumers looking to knock off their Christmas shopping earlier than usual, with November starting to edge out December as the busiest period,” said NRA CEO Dominique Lamb.

“Bargain sales events such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday have only heightened this trend.”

According to a YouGov survey commissioned by Vend, over 12 million Australians planned to shop on Black Friday in 2019. 

Last year’s Black Friday accounted for 6.6 per cent of total sales in November, which preceded a spending decline in December.

This story originally appeared on sister site Inside Retail.