Hopes were high going into the year’s biggest retail sales event. Research from the Australian Retailers Association and Roy Morgan forecast that Australians would spend a record $6.2 billion over the Black Friday to Cyber Monday period just past.

The overall numbers from the weekend aren’t in just yet, but multinational e-commerce platform Shopify has released figures showing record-breaking sales for its merchants across Australia and worldwide.

Shopify recorded sales of $7.5 billion USD ($11.16 billion AUD) from independent businesses across the globe. That’s a 19 percent increase on the $6.3 billion USD Shopify merchants earned during the same period in 2021. Australia came in fourth in total spend. 

Contributing to this increased spending was a higher number of consumers purchasing from brands powered by Shopify this year. Australian Shopify merchants saw a 22.7 percent increase in consumers compared with 2021.

Global insights

• Globally, Black Friday had the highest volume shopping moment over the whole weekend, with peak sales of more than $3.5 million per minute at 12:01pm Eastern Time on 25 November (4:01am AEDT on 26 November).
• In Australia, Melbourne ranked number one for average consumer spend, followed by Sydney, Perth and Brisbane.
  
• Australia-wide, shoppers’ spend over the full weekend climbed to $162.27 per order on average, compared with last year’s average of $155.73 AUD.
• Apparel and Accessories sales topped Aussie consumers’ lists across Shopify-powered stores this weekend, followed by Health and Beauty, Home and Garden, Food and Beverages and Electronics.
• Black Friday and Cyber Monday proved once again to be driven by online sales with mobile driving 70 percent of sales overall this year.
• Despite this, in-person retail saw a jump, with Shopify POS sales up 26 percent on 2021.
• Cross-border orders also grew this year, with 19 percent of orders from Australian merchants made by international consumers. The most popular cross-border routes were Australia-United States, followed by Australia-United Kingdom, Australia-New Zealand.

Even with some brands rejecting the high-pressure retail event, early results like this indicate Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales are going from strength to strength in Australia.