But the discount frenzy, which some economists have said cannot go on forever, comes as retailers’ profit margins are being stretched thin as they contend with higher operating costs for energy, fuel, labour, raw materials and more. Meanwhile, shoppers are buying less, trading down, turning to ultra-cheap Chinese retailers like Temu and Shein, and taking up good deals.

Businesses have had to be more deliberate and tactical with their mark-down strategy to entice Australians to part with their money, according to Carla Penn-Kahn, the CEO of ecommerce insights platform Profit Peak.

“Retailers are increasingly focused on product-specific discounts rather than applying broad discounts across their entire range,” she said.

“One of the key strategies emerging is the use of varying discount levels depending on factors like product sell-through rates [amount of inventory sold in a specific period], stock availability, and popularity.

“This is a smart move as it avoids deep discounting on best-selling products, which could lead to [shortages] and leave retailers with less desirable inventory.”

At the top end of town, major retailers are eager to convey that they provide value for money, and are sticking to traditional markdown methods. Department store David Jones is offering a suite of deals that differ across categories and brands that vary in depth and timing; JB Hi-Fi started its “blitz” on November 21. Its Perks program members are given early access to online deals. “Black Friday is now the leading retail sales event,” said JB Hi-Fi managing director Cameron Trainor.

Promotions are starting weeks in advance, says Penn-Kahn, in an attempt to capture consumer dollars as early as possible before sales fatigue sets in. Amazon Australia kicked off Black Friday sales on November 19. Data crunched by Shippit shows the biggest day of sales during the Black Friday period is actually six days before Black Friday itself (which falls on November 29 this year).

“By being more discerning with discounting, retailers can protect their margins and ensure they’re not left with stock that’s harder to shift,” Penn-Kahn said.

‘No bulls--t’: One size does not fit all

Retailers are marching to their own beat. While some are staggering price cuts, LNDR’s site-wide approach pushes back against discounts with conditions and caveats.

“A lot of brands we see especially in Australia [do] ‘final sale’, or five different sales through November … and kind of create that crazy sense of frenzied urgency all the time,” said Turner.

The duo is keen to turn down the noise. “We just try and work around that kind of trickery,” Turner said. “There’s no final sale,” Scott-Hunter said. “We just really wanted to stay true to our core value, which is no bulls--t. We want them to buy slowly.”

To preserve margins and meet consumer expectations, some retailers are doing things differently. Julie Mathers, founder of baby clothing brand Snuggle Hunny, began preparing for Black Friday a year ago after reviewing some excess stock.

Not participating isn’t really an option. “Customers get hyped up about it,” she said. “We get asked multiple times a day, ‘Are you doing Black Friday?’.

“We’ve created a little range particularly for it. This exclusive collection is also made from excess fabric that would just otherwise go into landfill.”

Perfectly good products with minor faults that would typically have been thrown out, like prints that are slightly blurry or produced at too large a scale, will be sold exclusively during Black Friday at a discount as ‘Snuggle Specials’. From November 26 to Cyber Monday, on December 2, Snuggle Hunny will hold a sitewide sale of up to 70 per cent off.

Mathers sees it as a triple win: factories get paid, customers are getting a great deal and fewer items end up in landfill.

The numbers certainly stack up, if recent history is anything to go by. In September, to celebrate the ninth anniversary of the business, Mathers knocked 40 per cent off prices on her whole site for an hour.

“In that 59 minutes, our sales were about 55 times what they would be in any given day. We did over half a million dollars,” she said. “People in Perth were getting up at 4am for this.”

The mother of two expects sales to shoot up tenfold during the Black Friday period. “It shows the power of community. When you’ve got a good product, a good offer, I think if you get your strategy right, this is what you can do – in this economy.”

In Byron Bay, where LNDR is based, Turner and Scott-Hunter are expecting a fourfold increase in usual sales, but they suspect the actual figure will be higher.

“Of course, we don’t like discounting our products because we put so much into them, and we want people to see the value in buying them full price,” said Turner. “But at the same time, the thought of getting so many new customers into the products makes it worthwhile.

“Our Black Friday campaign this year is actually we hate Black Friday. Or we love to hate it.”

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