Harvey Norman boss Gerry Harvey claims that consumer electronics was one of the hottest categories during the recent Black Friday sales which he claims set a record for the mass retailer.
Several distributors were sweating on a good Black Friday with many fearing that retailers could demand additional dollars to help clear stock that failed to sell even when discounted.
Retailers such as Kogan who are wallowing in stock were banking on a strong Black Friday with retailers set to release their sell through numbers to suppliers later this morning.
Gerry Harvey told the Financial Review “All the bargain hunters are out there. The biggest sales are in computers and electronics. There’s still a lot of money out in the community and people are looking to buy now instead of waiting,” Mr Harvey said.
He suspected that shoppers spent more vigorously in the Black Friday period – which Harvey Norman labelled “Big Friday” in its marketing – than any other time in the retail calendar, including the traditional Boxing Day sales.
ChannelNews understands that JB Hi Fi also witnessed strong Black Friday demand.
Mark Mezrani, founder and chief executive of educational toys chain Kidstuff, which has a network of 56 outlets and is today selling CE and technology driven education products for kids, said business had been brisk over Black Friday and the weekend.
“Our Black Friday sales are very strong,” he said. “So far, so good, touch wood. It’s been very strong.”
He said it was a balancing act to try to maximise sales when the demand was there across the Black Friday period, which was now a huge event in the minds of shoppers. But some margin was sacrificed.
Today retailers are punting on strong Cyber Monday sales to clear stock that did not sell through as well as stock that was specifically ordered for Cyber Monday.
Of concern to retailers
The ARA forecast that about $6 billion would be spent during Black Friday and Cyber Monday and that records were likely to be set. “There’s still a day to go, but that’s what we’re seeing,” Paul Zahra the former boss of department store group David Jones and now chief executive of the Australian Retailers Association
He said shoppers had carefully planned purchases before the sales event.
Several suppliers have told ChannelNews that there are real concerns that retailers are giving away profits with their Black Friday sales which they will struggle to “recoup” running into the traditional peak buying period of Christmas and the New Year. They are also tipping a “flat” Boxing Day sale period.
Analysts claim that many consumers want to spend up before Christmas gatherings, where they will finally be with family and friends in an unrestricted way after a very difficult time at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“This is the first Christmas in three years when people are going to be able to fully get together and not have to do Zoom calls and things like that,” Mr Zahra said.
Although there were projections of economic gloom by many forecasters for 2023 as cost-of-living pressures bite and interest rates rise, they weren’t perturbed for now.
“They’re saying life’s too short,” Mr Zahra said, shrugging off any future rate rise pain.
“People aren’t worried about that just yet.”
ChannelNews will publish updates to this story later today.
