Customers can expect reduced prices on staples including some instant coffees and toilet paper as well as other items from November 15 to 21.

Research from Finder.com.au shows Australians are expected to spend $727 per person on the Black Friday sales.

Discretionary retailers will generally make up to two-thirds of their yearly profit through the holiday trading period,Zahra said,but this year household budgets were under extreme pressure from the cost-of-living crisis.

“Now,this is a complete reverse of what we saw the last two Christmases,because people were record spending,there was a lot of what we call freedom spending … but this year,it’s a very different proposition,” he said.

“This is very much a budget-conscious customer. That’s probably the best way to describe the Christmas spend,” he said.

Ahead of the sales,consumer spending has slowed after a resilient few months,according to the Commonwealth Bank’s household spending index.

The bank’s senior economist Belinda Allen said the question was whether consumers had held back spending ahead of this month’s sales,or whether the Reserve Bank’s November interest rate hike,which took the official cash rate to 4.35 per cent,would keep spending soft.

“What it’s showing is,when there’s no reason to spend,consumers are winding back,” the bank’s senior economist Belinda Allen said.

The Commonwealth data showed consumers had reduced spending at furniture stores,appliance stores,luxury boutiques and jewellery stores,which was partially offset by some higher spending on online marketplaces and used and second-hand goods stores.

Allen said this was building on a trend the bank has seen over the course of the year.

“We have seen it in terms of consumers[who are] trading down brands,trading down quality of goods as well,” she said.

“That’s just another example of how consumers are making decisions to help them in terms of the cost-of-living pressures.”

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