Australia’s top 20 shopping centres revealed

A new State of the Nation Retail Spotlight from Roy Morgan Research has revealed Australia’s favourite shopping destinations, with Chadstone in Melbourne and Westfield Parramatta in Sydney coming out at the top of the list.

During the last financial year, 6.5 million Australians aged over 14 shopped at one or more shopping centres in a month. Chadstone in Melbourne saw the most visitors, with 396,000 shoppers during the four week period, followed closely by Westfield Parramatta with 385,000.

Melbourne and Sydney were the top shopping cities, with 8 of the top 20 shopping centres in Melbourne and five in Sydney. Brisbane wasn’t far behind, with four shopping centres seeing over 238,000 customers a month.

Queensland shoppers were also the most likely to search out a bargain - the top three centres where shoppers were likely to go out of their way for a bargain were all in the Sunshine State - while at Westfield Bondi Junction 43% of shoppers were likely to buy clothes for the brand - nearly twice the average 22% of all Australian shoppers.

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Just 40% of Australian shoppers reported liking clothes shopping, but it was apparently more enjoyable in Melbourne, where around 62-65% of shoppers, depending on the centre, said they enjoyed browsing through the racks.

Overall 31% of Australians said credit was what allowed them to buy the things they wanted, with the most people shopping on credit in Westfield Parramatta.

If you’re planning to shop up a storm this Christmas, make sure you carry a credit card with a low interest rate attached or consider taking advantage of one of the many 0% honeymoon offers available now.