Shoppers urged to spend local during Black Friday sales

Be.Bendigo chief executive Rob Herbert said Black Friday sales had overtaken Boxing Day sales and were a "significant part" of Christmas trade.

"It's really critical for our local businesses to be front and centre and front of mind for our consumers to support," he said.

Black Friday sales began as a soley-American event after Thanksgiving, but has since become an opportunity globally for people to start their Christmas shopping early.

Oliver Birch owner Deb McAliece said her staff spent months preparing for the sale event.

"The preparation is massive and we encourage people to actually come into the store; we extend our hours and we do a lot of specials in-store only," she said.

"Hopefully people will come into Bendigo and into the other smaller stores."

Ms McAliece said the lifestyle and homewares shop offered an in-store experience you could not get online.

"We are very customer focused and as much as everybody says, 'you've got to give that customer focus online', you can't do what you can do when you're in store and have a great team with great service," she said.

"We gift-wrap and we've got the atmosphere; it's a one-stop shop."

Mr Herbert said he encouraged local businesses to make the most out of the event, rather than be "overwhelmed" by the bigger brands.

"I think that's in their best interest to try and make it as compelling as possible for people to purchase locally," he said.

"Those big ticket items around clothing, footwear, furniture and electrical goods, and a lot of those things are offerings in our local businesses."

For Kane Barri, owner of boutique fashion store The Meadow, sales events like Black Friday put pressure on small businesses.

He said bigger businesses received a higher margin on their products and could "afford to have more regular sales".

"The smaller companies only get the standard margin, so for us to match it, we essentially would be giving the stock away because without making a cent," he said.

"As much as there are some little companies doing Black Friday sales, they're normally only going to be vertical businesses that make their own products.

"I understand everyone wants to save some dollars, but to keep that money local means that businesses stay open."

Mr Barri said his children's clothing and accessory store Juno would permanently close at the end of the year as it was not making enough money.

"We've had some good support but you sort of can't rely on the 20 to 30 really good customers to keep you alive; you need everyone chipping in," he said.

Mr Barri and his wife Matisse also own homewares store Gathered.

He said if people did not shop locally, more small retail stores would have to close.

"Even if it's just some of the gifts that people are buying, the flow on effect certainly helps," he said.

"Bendigo would look pretty drab without small retail stores, it'd look pretty horrible."