New research confirms the seismic shift in the end-of-year sales season.

 

Australia’s peak retail season has undergone a seismic shift, with the peak orbiting not around Christmas and the Boxing Day sales, but the Black Friday, Cyber Monday (BFCM) weekend.

 

After considerable growth, the Black Friday weekend is now the undisputed pinnacle of peak season, according to delivery management software firm Shippit. 

 

Shippit’s latest research shows that 60 per cent of shoppers delay purchases throughout the year, waiting explicitly for the sales phenomenon. What’s more, a further 65 per cent do their Christmas shopping during the sales period.

 

Retailers pulled promotions forward two weeks, spreading demand across November - with retailers seeing an 8.1 per cent increase in volumes on average compared to 2024 - and reducing reliance on the four-day Black Friday, Cyber Monday sales.

 

Based on tens of millions of orders at more than 4000 retailers using Shippit in Australia, retailers offering same-day and next-day delivery grew nearly four per cent faster during BFCM in 2025. 

 

The study also found that sales of office supplies and furnishings were up by six per cent year-on-year in November but dropped by five per cent during the BFCM period.

 

“Black Friday still delivered for Australian retailers, but not in the traditional way. Instead of one large, contained spike, we saw demand spread across the month, with activity building in October, lifting through Click Frenzy and carrying into November. Retailers have clearly adjusted to a longer promotional season and are mixing their strategies to reduce their reliance on a highly pressurised, highly competitive four-day window,”  Rob Hango-Zada, joint-CEO of Shippit, said.