It’s no secret that online sales are growing and in recent years this has also included one of the biggest retail moments, the lead up to Christmas.

Global sales events like November’s Black Friday and Cyber Monday, originally designed to give shoppers access to competitive prices from the comfort of their own home are now fully integrated into the entire retail ecosystem.

By reimaging what retail is, Westfield – owned and operated by Scentre Group –outperformed the market at Christmas time in 2018.

And it’s a market Westfield leads, its customers influencing one-third of all retail spend in Australia, and last year capturing $4.9 billion directly during November and December.

In terms of customers through the doors, more customers are visiting more often and staying for longer, with an average 20 per cent increase in average weekly traffic compared to the rest of the year.

Diversification has been critical to Westfield avoiding the perils of retail, with the company no longer simply focussing on shopping.

Rather than ‘shopping centres’ the group now talks about ‘living centres’, with non-shopping activities playing an important role – hence why we saw Katy Perry promoting her tour from a Westfield last year.

During the Christmas period, this gives brands that may not typically be found in a shopping centre the opportunity to leverage Westfield’s surge in foot traffic.

Advertisers take note

And high foot traffic means lots of eyeballs.

Christmas marks the time of year where broadcasters switch to their holiday programming, meaning brands can’t rely on reaching audiences through traditional networks.

At this same time, however, Westfield is welcoming an engaged audience ready to spend, giving advertisers the opportunity to be where Australians are during November and December.

This is facilitated by Scentre Group BrandSpace’s commercial solutions ecosystem of over 1,700 large format ‘SuperScreens’ and floor based ‘SmartScreens’ and over 500 physical retail sites and digital solutions.

As well as giving advertisers access to an audience that’s ready to spend, the displays also add to the vibrancy of the centres and assist brands in building relationships with customers.

To learn about the opportunities for brands, click here.