Aussie consumers will spend over $50 billion during the upcoming Christmas trading period from November 15 to December 24, according to the annual pre-Christmas sales predictions from The Australian Retailers Association (ARA) and Roy Morgan Research.

ARA and Roy Morgan have tipped Australian consumers to spend 2.8 per cent more on Christmas this year, compared to 2016. The figure is in contrast to last week’s prediction by the National Retailers Association who said spending will hit $48 billion.

“While the latest retail trade figures have shown a considerable decline, our combined Christmas sales forecast with Roy Morgan demonstrate that Christmas sales will be a little bit better than recent figures,” said Russell Zimmerman, ARA executive director,

“Unfortunately this estimate is still well below the 4-5 per cent growth that retailers would like to see this Christmas,” Zimmerman said.

“As online retailing continues to grow, we predict online gift purchases to increase by 3.96 per cent, and expect Australian shoppers to purchase most of their gifts online this year.”

Food and liquor retailers will also see a substantial trade this Christmas with the ARA and Roy Morgan predicting a 3.27 per cent increase from 2016 sales.

Restaurant and cafe retailers are also tipped to see an increase in sales this year as the hospitality category is expected to grow by a modest 2.89 per cent.

“Although we have seen retail sales slowly decline across all categories, we believe Christmas will see this year’s trade improve for many Australian retailers,” Zimmerman said.

“There may have been a lot of change throughout the industry this year, but one thing is for sure, and that’s the fact that Australian’s love Christmas, as Christmas is the season of giving.”

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