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With less than five weeks to go, it's starting to feel a lot like Christmas.
The retail frenzy known as Black Friday in the United States has marked the start of the lead-up to the crucial Christmas season for retailers across the globe.
While the shopping day is in the US and comes after Thanksgiving, the advent of online retailing has spread its influence worldwide.
That means Australian shoppers won't miss out on the bargains.
The earliest evidence of the phrase Black Friday applied to the day after Thanksgiving in a shopping context suggests that the term originated in Philadelphia, where it was used to describe the heavy and disruptive pedestrian and vehicle traffic that would occur on the day after Thanksgiving.
This usage dates to at least 1961. More than 20 years later, as the phrase became more widespread, a popular explanation became that it represented the point in the year when retailers begin to turn a profit, thus going from being "in the red" to being "in the black".
Some Australian retailers will be hoping the same occurs here.
However, there seems to be a rise in discounting in the past month as retailers try to shift stock, even before they head into the post-Christmas discounting.
According to Colliers International, department stores have not been faring so well, just managing to scrape into positive territory at 0.17 per cent year on year in September after two consecutive months of declines.
This is despite the department store owners spending a lot of time and money on new formats and strategies to capture the elusive customer dollar.
That is reflected in the new Myer store at Scentre Group and AMP Capital's newly revamped Warringah Mall, in Sydney.
The interior design and architectural concept was by Woods Bagot, with store "designed around the customer, for the customer".
It is 14,000 square metres with 170 brands, 60 new to Myer Warringah and more than 67 "shop in shop" brand destinations.
Myer chief executive Richard Umbers said at the recent opening that: "With Christmas just around the corner, we've packed Myer Warringah with hundreds of wanted brands and fabulous gift ideas backed up by a highly trained local team, which has been specially recruited to bring personalised service to a new level".
Daniel Lees, a director of research at Colliers International, said one reason for the recent softness in department store sales was that the discount department stores were grouped within this category, with both Big W and Target announcing negative sales growth in the most recent quarterly market updates.
"Australia's discount department stores have been grappling with turnaround strategies for several years now, with the only real winner being Kmart in what could be considered a zero-sum game," he said.
"Turnaround strategies seem to vary little between operators; optimising back-end costs, selling down old inventory, reducing the overall number of stock keeping units (SKUs), concentrating efforts on the apparel sector while simultaneously shifting away from bulkier household items."
He said that unfortunately, low-cost, high-turnover fast fashion was precisely what most of the new overseas entrants excelled at, placing these strategies in an immediate position of weakness.
Mr Lees said conditions appeared to be a little brighter for apparel retailers, with the clothing and footwear category growing at a fairly healthy rate of 5.73 per cent year on year in the September release.
One boost for retailers is that economic drivers remain broadly favourable for the Australian consumer.
(This list was compiled by Chris Jager at Lifehacker for the full list click here)
Computing / Gadgets
- Up to 45% off Lenovo PCs: Get $1000+ off Lenovo Thinkpad laptops and desktops. Noteworthy deals include ThinkPad Yoga 460 i7 for $1,499 (RRP: $2,499), the ThinkPad X1 Yoga for $1714 (RRP: $2499) and the M73 Small Desktop for $749 (RRP: $949). Click here!
- $200 gift card from Apple: Get a gift card worth up to $200 with the purchase of selected Apple gifts. Click here!
- Save $498 on selected Microsoft Surfaces:Get up to $498 off Microsoft Surface products, including the 128GB Surface Book with Intel Core i5. Click here!
Miscellaneous
- 35% off at Book Depository: Includes selected best-sellers. Click here!
- Up to 60% off at ThinkGeek: ThinkGeek has slashed the price of hundreds of pop culture items: perfect for Christmas gifts! Click here!
- Up to 90% all products at Photobook Australia: To get the deal, use the discount code "BFCL". Click here!
- Half-price gift box from Lovehoney: Get the $400 Lovehoney Big Box of Sexual Happiness Sex Toy Advent Calendar for $200. Click here!
Games / Software
- Cheap PS4 bundles: Sony has rounded up all the notable PS4 bundles on its webUp site from Australian retailers. Prices start at $298. Click here!
- Get Nintendo's Classic Mini NES from CatchOfTheDay: This isn't a sale per se, but the Classic Mini NES is so hard to get hold of this could be your only chance prior to Christmas. Click here!
- Up to 50% off Xbox One accessories: Includes Turtle Beach headsets, Xbox steering wheels, Kinect sensors, external hard drive and chatpads. Click here!
Fashion
- Up to 25% off at Jacqui.E: This discount applies to all items, including stuff that is already on sale. Hurrah! Click here!
- 30% off dresses at Missguided: To get 30 per cent off dresses, use the prop code "HOTAF" at checkout. Click here!
- 40% of storewide at Millers: This sale is unfortunately for reward members only. (Fortunately, membership is free.) Click here
Food / Drink
- Cheap liquor from Dan Murphy's: Deals include Johnnie Walker Black Label Scotch Whisky (700mL) for $38 and Annie's Lane Shiraz for $9. Click here!
- Free whole roast chicken from Red Rooster: This deal is available in-store and at the drive-thru when you spend $25 or more. Click here! [Via mydiscountdeals]
- Up to 50% off at Cellarmasters: Get half-price wines from Cellarmasters' huge collection. The deal includes free shipping. Click here!
