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Boxing Day vs Black Friday: Which sale event is stronger?

It's a battle of the sale events and only one can be victorious.

Alexandra Hourigan
Alexandra Hourigan

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Woman shopping for clothes on laptop

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We all enjoy a good sales event. And it's not like we don't get a few good bargains during the year with events like Afterpay Day, Vogue Online Shopping Night and of course, Cyber Weekend and Boxing Day.

Without a doubt, the two biggest days for sales are Black Friday and Boxing Day. If you've had your eye on any items for a while or just want to snap up some bargains, these are the two days to do so.

Boxing Day vs. Black Friday

Black Friday is a sale event based on the US tradition of Thanksgiving and takes place the day after the holiday. It's one of the days that really kick-starts a lot of Christmas shopping. But if you're looking to shop for yourself, should you shop on Black Friday or wait for Boxing Day?

Waiting for Boxing Day or doing all your shopping on Black Friday can seem like quite the gamble. To put it simply, you don't want to miss out on the better sale.

The Black Friday US sales event has become increasingly popular in Australia. According to The Sydney Morning Herald, it is "estimated that close to $400 million was poured into sales across the country as Australians hit their computers and phones to grab a bargain online and in stores". Plus, Google's data reports that in the last five years, the site has seen the interest of Internet users in Black Friday more than double.

While the popularity of Black Friday continues to grow, it doesn't necessarily take away the hype of Boxing Day sales. These sales have more of a tradition and in-store presence for Australians. With the presence of more international online retailers in Australia too, the number of online sales for Boxing Day continues to grow exponentially.

The answer to what sale to shop really boils down to what you're shopping for. As a discount and deals site, Finder reports on both sales. On Black Friday (27th November) we see more sales that are "sitewide" or "storewide" for lower discounts around 10-30% off on average.

However, on Boxing Day you can expect to see a number of more significant deals. As retailers are trying to get rid of an abundance of stock they lump thousands of items into sale sections. Here we can and have seen discounts of up to 80% off in some instances. Retailers like THE ICONIC, David Jones and Surfstitch held Boxing Day sales of this style in 2019 and we predict will do so again in 2021.

This doesn't mean that the Boxing Day sales will be a mixture of old stock and winter clothing. Many retailers are competing with one another so we're still predicting that there will be a number of big ticket items on sale like designer bags, Dyson vacuums and Apple AirPods.

Whatever sale you decide to shop, there is one life lesson to take out of sale events. Save yourself the hassle of longline checkouts, filled fitting rooms and maniac parking centres, and shop the sales online. Trust us, you'll thank us later.

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Image credit: Getty Images

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