Introduction:
The countdown to Christmas is on! As Aussies start stocking up for their silly season festivities, one thing is on many shoppers’ minds—finding amazing deals.
BizCover, Australia’s leading online insurance service for small businesses, set out to discover who are Australia’s savviest shoppers. A years’ worth of Google searches revealed the top cities on the hunt for shopping deals, the items they most want to buy on discount, and their favourite shopping events.
If you work in retail and are planning your shop’s end of year sales and discounts, keep reading to discover which customers you might want to target and the items they’re looking for.
Key Takeaways
- NSW is the most shopping savvy state, with Sydney, Bathurst, Dubbo and Orange taking out the top four spots.
- Victor Harbor (SA), Launceston (TAS), Bunbury (WA), Alice Springs and Darwin (NT) are the least-savvy shopping cities on the list.
- The top 3 most-searched sales events across Australia are Black Friday, Boxing Day and end of financial year (EOFY).
- The end-of-year period, spanning November and December, presents the biggest opportunity for retailers to engage with Australia’s most avid deal seekers.
- Three categories dominate Australian sale searches: automotive, bags & luggage, and sports equipment.
Australia’s Top Cities for Savvy Shoppers
When it comes to searching up a deal, New South Wales has the nation’s top bargain hunters. NSW locations make up the top 4 cities for savvy shoppers—Sydney, Bathurst, Dubbo and Orange—and Port Macquarie comes in at number eight.
Queensland also features prominently with three cities making the top ten: Brisbane (rounding out the top 5), Gladstone (#6) and Gold Coast (#10). Melbourne (#7) is Victoria’s lone entrant, and Mount Gambier (#9) represents for South Australian shoppers.
Retailers in these cities may want to consider offering deals and discounts to catch the attention of savvy shoppers, while online retailers might see great results with ads targeting these discount-hungry regions.
Australia’s Least Savvy Shopping Cities
So which cities are less motivated by a bargain? Victor Harbor, SA has the fewest sale-related searches, followed by Launceston, TAS; Bunbury, WA; Alice Springs, NT and Darwin, NT.
Retailers in these areas might need to take a different approach to Christmas sales, as their customers appear to be less interested bargain hunting. Focusing instead on product quality, reviews, and customer service could help your shop rise above the rest.
Retailers can also focus on geo-targeted ads and content that resonate with local culture or events. Tailoring social media campaigns to showcase stories of local customers or engaging with local influencers could help connect the brand to the community without emphasising discounts.
Australia’s Favourite Sale Events by Search Popularity
Two sales days dominate the Aussie shopping calendar (and our searches): Black Friday and Boxing Day. These shopping events made up 41% and just over 34% of searches, respectively.
The next three sales events don’t even come close—EOFY (8.5%), Christmas (5%), and Cyber Monday (5%). However, Cyber Monday follows right after Black Friday, making it the perfect finale to any planned November discounts retailers are offering before the end-of-year holidays.
Key takeaways for retailers? Start targeting Christmas shoppers early and be ready for bargain hunters looking to buy items that Santa forgot to bring!
Top Sectors Searched by Savvy Australian Shoppers
Automotive is far and away the top category for Aussies looking to score a deal. This sector saw over 6.1 million annual searches, followed by bags & luggage (over 2.3 million searches) and sports equipment (over 1.3 million).
Electronics came in a distant fourth with just 223,000 annual searches. Australians also looked for bargains on beauty (110,000), travel (107,000), toys (93,200) and clothing (79,300).
Retailers catering to these sectors may want to build a Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) strategy that helps savvy shoppers find keywords related to the content on their sites when searching up deals. Selling new items could also bring in new customers, for example a clothing shop introducing a handbag line.
Conclusion
Understanding where and when shoppers are looking for deals can help small retail businesses have a very merry Christmas season!
This year, retailers may want to focus their efforts and budget on Black Friday and Boxing Day promotions. Online shops may take the additional step of creating regionally targeted ads to grow their sales in those cities where more shoppers are searching for a deal. And expanding your product offering into new sectors—namely automotive, bags & luggage, and sports equipment—might help you snag more savvy shoppers.
Methodology
This study used Google search data to analyse Australia’s top cities for bargain-seeking behaviour. Data was gathered from Google Keyword Planner, covering the 12-month period from October 2023 to September 2024, and focused on the 50 most populated Australian cities* to reveal where interest in deals and discounts is highest.
A seed set of 682 keywords was developed, spanning 12 major sales events and 17 sectors, including terms like “Black Friday sales,” “car sales,” “Boxing Day discounts,” and “EOFY sales.” These keywords were segmented by city, with search volumes retrieved for each location via Google’s platform. BizCover ranked the cities based on total search volume to determine Australia’s most “deal-savvy” cities.
To offer an accurate regional perspective, population data was factored in, calculating search volume per 1,000 residents for each city.
Data is accurate as of October 2024.
