Source : THE AGE NEWS
It’s 4pm on Thursday, December 19 and Melbourne Central Shopping Centre is bustling with frantic, festive energy.
Crowds race between different stores armed with an array of shopping bags, while a Santa Claus busker plays a rendition of Jingle Bells on a piano accordion near the train station.
Australian shoppers are forecast to spend $69.8 billion during the lead-up to Christmas this year. Credit: Natalie Boog
Christmas is right around the corner, but Alice Donohue still has four more presents to buy.
The 20-year-old and her younger sister Summer and cousin India-Scarlet Wise are all self-described chronic last-minute shoppers.
“We always leave it to the last moment, every year,” Donohue laughed.
“I think we like the hustle,” Wise added. “There’s this really great energy, plus the time pressure helps you decide on gifts quicker.”
They are not alone.
Melbourne’s Chadstone Shopping centre – the largest indoor retail centre in Australia – expects to welcome half a million last-minute shoppers in the week before Christmas.
Chadstone Shopping Centre Credit: JOE ARMAO
Sydney’s Queen Victoria Building is expecting similar numbers, with an estimated 545,000 visitors between December 18 and 24.
Despite the current cost-of-living crunch, the Australian Retailers Association (ARA) said shoppers were forecast to spend $69.8 billion in the lead-up to Christmas, a 2.7 per cent increase from 2023.
New South Wales consumers were predicted to spend $21.9 billion, while Victorian shoppers were projected to spend $17.8 billion.
Nearly 16.7 million Australians will buy Christmas gifts, with the average shopper spending $707 each.
Chadstone shopping centre manager Daniel Boyle said his team starts preparing for the busy festive season in June.
“We start planning how to support retailers recruit their Christmas casuals … getting that people-power ready takes a lot of time and effort,” he explained.
December is still Chadstone’s biggest and busiest month, however Boyle had noticed an increase in traffic in November, with shoppers taking advantage of Black Friday sales.
“Black Friday is probably the catalyst of change in our industry,” he said. “It provides a really terrific opportunity for organised people to prepare their Christmas presents.”
A recent Shopify survey found 53 per cent of Australian consumers finalised their Christmas shopping lists by mid-October, while 58 per cent finished buying their gifts by the end of November.
However, Boyle said shopping centres always receive an inevitable influx of last-minute Christmas shoppers.
“There’s plenty of people shopping on Christmas Eve,” he said. “That’s okay as long as they’re organised for the next day.”
MECCA retail general manager Sophie Wood said their stores received an almost 200 per cent increase in foot traffic in the week leading up to Christmas in 2023 and was expecting to see similar numbers this year.
The beauty juggernaut hired an extra 1000 Christmas casuals this year to meet increased demand over the holiday period.
Myer’s chief customer officer Geoff Ikin encouraged last-minute shoppers to take advantage of extended trading hours and click-and-collect services during the busy holiday period.
He said Lego, Barbie and personalised Kit Kats at Myer remained popular last-minute gifts in the lead-up to Christmas.
However, it’s not just retail heavyweights that are inundated with last-minute Christmas shoppers.
Melbourne independent bookstore owner Leesa Lambert deliberately does not play Christmas carols in her store to try and decrease stress for shoppers.
Little Bookroom owner Leesa Lambert creates a relaxing environment for last-minute Christmas shoppers.Credit: Justin McManus
“We try to make the environment as relaxing and stress-free as possible, which is hard because I’d love to play some Christmas music,” she said.
Lambert has owned The Little Bookroom in Carlton North for 16 years and said last-minute Christmas shopping had gotten later every year.
“We have a lot of brown paper ready to go and we hire a lot of Christmas casuals this time of year to help us out,” she said.
“Last-minute shoppers are usually keen for recommendations … a lot of picture books and novels by local authors fly off the shelves. It’s a busy time of year.”
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