Digital Catalogues Top Australians’ Festive Deal-Hunting, But Shoppers Still Want to Buy in-Store
marketing digital marketing
MTE
Published on : Nov 9, 2026
Sydney, Australia – 9 November 2026 – As Black Friday approaches, new research from Shopfully, the global leader in drive-to-store marketing, suggests Australians are using digital tools to plan their festive shopping but still prefer to complete the purchase in-store.
The survey conducted in October 2026, found three in five (60%) prefer to buy holiday gifts in-store, while one-third (33%) shop online and in-store equally. Only 7% prefer to buy online. In other words, digital is shaping the festive shopping trip, but the store is still where most Australians want to finish it.
That digital planning shows up in how Australians find festive inspiration. Digital catalogues and leaflet platforms were the most common source of deals and gift ideas (34%), ahead of researching on brand or retailer websites, apps or marketplaces (29%), printed leaflets or catalogues (28%) and browsing in-store (24%). Social media was cited by 12%. The results suggest many shoppers are lining up their options before they leave the house, with the physical store still the destination.
“Shoppers are doing their homework digitally, then heading to the store to buy,” said Brendan Straw, Country Manager, Shopfully Australia. “For retailers, the festive season is won or lost in that handover. If your offer isn’t visible while shoppers are planning, it’s much harder to earn a place in the trolley when they walk through the door.”
Black Friday has become a planning moment
Black Friday is also shaping when Australians start their Christmas shopping. One-third of Australians surveyed (33%) described themselves as “Deal Hunters” who treat Black Friday as their starting point for Christmas shopping, the largest of the shopper types in the survey. By comparison, 23% are “Planners” who begin shopping by October and 9% are last-minute shoppers who rarely start before mid-December. For a sizeable group, it suggests the festive season now kicks off with the sales rather than in December.
Many are also waiting for those sales. Of those who answered, 38% said they had delayed buying food and beverages in the hope of a festive sale, followed by clothing, shoes and accessories (31%), children’s products and toys (26%) and home goods (26%). It points to shoppers deliberately holding back spend, which makes the weeks leading into Black Friday a key window for retailers to get their offers in front of them.
Budgets suggest Christmas remains the bigger spend overall. Of those who answered, 44% plan to spend $300 or more on Christmas overall, including 26% planning to spend more than $500, compared with 23% who plan to spend $300 or more on Black Friday. A further 26% have no fixed Christmas budget. Taken together, the figures suggest Black Friday is where many shoppers begin, while Christmas is where the larger budgets sit.
“A third of shoppers treating Black Friday as the start of Christmas shows how much the event has become a planning window, not just a bargain hunt,” said Straw. “Shoppers are prepared to wait for the right price, so retailers need to be visible early, make their promotions easy to find, and give people a reason to come in store.”
AI is a deal-finder, not a gift-picker
While AI is entering the festive shopping journey, it is mostly being used to hunt for value. More than a quarter (28%) are using or considering AI tools to compare prices and find the best deals, compared with 8% for personalised gift ideas. At the same time, 43% said they prefer to handle holiday shopping tasks themselves. The results suggest AI is currently being used to find the deal rather than to choose the gift, with many shoppers keeping the personal side of gift-giving to themselves.
The findings point to three priorities for retailers this festive season: being visible in the digital channels shoppers use to plan, getting promotions live ahead of Black Friday rather than on the day, and making sure the in-store experience delivers once shoppers arrive.
