Editorial flat-lay with brass JUNE 16 marker, gavel, financial report, antique coins, magnifying glass on navy marble

ASIC Fines Zara, H&M And Sephora $596,000 | It’s On Sale Daily Brief, 16 June 2026

ASIC has just fined the local operators of Zara, H&M and Sephora a combined $596,000 for not filing their accounts. The Senate Economics Committee reports on the Unfair Trading Practices Bill this Thursday, the same day Click Frenzy returns under new owners with Australia Post backing the show. Three reasons to be more careful about where your EOFY dollars land this week, plus five fresh Australian sales we have not featured before.

Zara, H&M And Sephora Hit With $596,000 In ASIC Fines

The corporate regulator has just fined the local operators of three of the most-shopped fast-fashion and beauty brands in Australia a combined $596,000 for late or missing financial reports. Inditex Australia (Zara), H&M Hennes & Mauritz, and Sephora Australia each paid a $198,000 infringement notice under Section 1317DAM of the Corporations Act, with all three penalties paid in late May and early June. The story was first reported by Inside Retail Australia on 4 June and confirmed in ASIC media release 26-111MR.

Inditex Australia missed its lodgement for the year ending 31 January 2025. H&M missed the year ending 30 November 2025. Sephora missed the year ending 31 December 2024. ASIC Commissioner Kate O’Rourke was unsparing in the release: “Since announcing a broad surveillance focused on late lodgement and non-lodgement of financial reports in August 2025, ASIC has issued 24 infringement notices totalling over $4.5 million for alleged financial reporting breaches.” She added that the action “should send a clear message to reporting entities that we are actively enforcing the financial reporting requirements and expect companies to comply.” Payment of an infringement notice is not an admission of guilt, per Accounting Times reporting, but all three companies have now lodged the overdue documents.

Why this matters for the shopper. Annual financial reports are how Australians actually see whether a global brand operating here is making money locally, paying tax locally, and standing behind warranties and returns out of a profitable local entity. When a fast-fashion or beauty giant cannot file accounts on time, the next obvious question is what those accounts will eventually reveal. Combine that with Zara and H&M’s repeated coverage by Choice and the ACCC for fast-fashion environmental claims, and the case for spending your EOFY dollars with Australian-owned retailers who actually file their accounts on time is now a regulatory matter, not just a values one.

Drip Pricing Crackdown Lands In The Senate This Thursday

Speaking of regulatory pressure, the Competition and Consumer Amendment (Unfair Trading Practices) Bill 2026 has its Senate Economics Legislation Committee report due this Thursday, 18 June. The Bill, which already passed the House of Representatives on 14 May, introduces a broad prohibition on unfair trading practices and is intended to commence on 1 July 2027, per a 12 June client alert from Russell Kennedy partners Gina Tresidder and Jacqueline Vuong.

Three sets of online-retail tactics are squarely in the crosshairs. First, drip pricing: the practice of advertising a headline price that excludes mandatory fees and only revealing the true total at checkout. Under the Bill, any mandatory transaction-based fee must be disclosed clearly and prominently in close proximity to the advertised price. Fine print, hover-over explanations and last-screen pop-ups will not cut it. Second, subscription auto-renewals: businesses will need to send timely renewal and cancellation reminders, offer accessible cancellation methods, and ensure anything signed up for online can be cancelled online. Third, manipulative checkout design: countdown timers that fake scarcity, confusing layouts that obstruct refunds, and other “dark patterns” are flagged as conduct that “unreasonably distorts the environment in which a consumer makes a decision.”

The catch is that even after the Senate signs off, commencement is still 13 months away. Until 1 July 2027, fake countdowns, hidden booking fees and almost-impossible-to-cancel subscriptions remain legal. For the next thirteen EOFY months, the only defence is a sceptical eye on the checkout screen and a preference for retailers that already price honestly today.

Click Frenzy Returns Thursday Under New Owners

Coincidentally, the same Thursday the drip-pricing crackdown lands in the Senate also marks the return of Click Frenzy. Australia’s original online mega-sales event launches a week-long EOFY edition on 18 June under new ownership: Gabby and Hezi Leibovich, the brothers behind Catch.com.au, Menulog and Scoopon. Australia Post is the Major Sponsor, and participation is free for the first 500 retailers and ecommerce brands to register, with hundreds expected across technology, fashion, homewares, beauty, sporting goods and travel, per Business Daily Media.

Gabby Leibovich said the comeback is the first step in something bigger: “Click Frenzy has been part of the Australian retail culture for more than a decade and very few retail brands have this level of awareness among both consumers and retailers. We see an opportunity to build on that foundation, with this EOFY sales event as our first step, but we’re also thinking much bigger about how Click Frenzy can play a meaningful role in shaping the future of ecommerce in Australia.” Hezi Leibovich framed the Australia Post deal as a barrier-remover for smaller stores: “Thanks to the support of Australia Post, participation is completely free. If you have a great offer, we want to help you share it with Australian shoppers.”

For shoppers, the timing is genuinely useful. Click Frenzy historically pushes participating retailers to publish their deepest single-week discount of the year, and a free-to-enter sponsor-backed edition tends to draw a broader set of independent Australian brands than the headline-grabbing JB Hi-Fi and Harvey Norman events. That is also exactly the kind of competitive pressure the drip-pricing reforms are meant to keep honest.

Top 5 Deals of the Day

Five Fresh Aussie Stores, Never Featured Here Before

Five Australian retailers, five categories, all making their first appearance in the Top 5 after a full audit of every store on It’s On Sale.

% discounts shown are indicative across each store’s sale range. Individual product savings vary.

Our Take

Three Thursday stories in one Tuesday brief: regulators fining the big global brands, lawmakers tightening the rules at the checkout, and a free-to-enter sales event pulling in hundreds of smaller Australian stores. The pattern is the same one we have been reporting all month. The honest end of Australian retail is being asked to compete harder than ever, while the offshore and global players keep accumulating regulatory file numbers. Today’s brief is the cleanest expression of that gap so far: Zara, H&M and Sephora paying ASIC fines on one side of the page, and Robert Gordon, Cotton On Clothing, Merchant 1948, Sussan and Smiggle running genuine markdowns on the other.

That gap is exactly why we built It’s On Sale. We track 35,000 Australian stores and 45,000 live products, every retailer Australian-owned and locally fulfilled, every promotion audited daily. Today’s Sales shows you every store currently running a discount, the AI search reads the way real shoppers ask for deals (try “leather boots under 200” or “Aussie-made ceramics”), and you will never find Temu, Shein, AliExpress or any offshore marketplace dressed up as a local store. In a week where the regulator, the legislature and the retail calendar all point in the same direction, that filter is the savings. Free, Australian, and built to keep your EOFY honest. Browse Today’s Sales before the 30 June clock runs out.

Big Four Banks Split On RBA Direction | It’s On Sale Daily Brief, 15 June 2026

The Big Four banks have split four ways on what the Reserve Bank does next. Westpac is now warning of two more hikes before Christmas while ANZ, NAB, CBA and HSBC see cuts on the horizon. Retail stocks rallied on the prospect last week (Temple & Webster up 13 per cent, Nick Scali up nearly 12), and the ACCC just fined another retailer $15 million for a fake sitewide sale. We line up what it means for your June dollars, plus five fresh Australian sales.

Big Four Banks Split Four Ways On The RBA

The Reserve Bank cash rate is sitting at 4.35 per cent and the Big Four economists can no longer agree on which way it moves next. Westpac chief economist Luci Ellis is the outlier, telling clients that the RBA will hike twice more this cycle, once in August and again in September, with markets having “underestimated the strength of the labour market” and noting that “increases are still forthcoming.” Reporting on the split by Tamika Seeto at Yahoo Finance Australia lays out the four positions in one place.

The other three majors disagree. ANZ head of Australian economics Adam Boyton expects the cash rate to hold for the rest of 2026, with two cuts pencilled in for the second half of 2027, telling clients that “rate cuts appear to be the next phase of monetary adjustments.” CBA senior economist Belinda Allen agrees: “We uphold this perspective and continue to predict rate cuts.” NAB chief economist Sally Auld has pulled her August hike call entirely, now forecasting three cuts in 2027 starting in the second quarter and saying flatly: “The next adjustment to the cash rate is likely to be a decrease.” HSBC chief economist Paul Bloxham sees the first cut in the third quarter of 2027, citing “timely indicators (that) suggest a more pronounced weakening ahead.”

For households, the gap between the two camps is real money. The current 4.35 per cent rate is adding roughly $272 a month to repayments on a $600,000 25-year mortgage compared with a 3.85 per cent setting, so two more Westpac-style hikes would lift that to closer to $550 a month over the same loan. The opposite scenario, the cuts the other three banks have penned in, would unwind that pressure through 2027. Either way, the message for the next six months is that the cash of carry has not yet eased, and discretionary budgets are still doing the heavy lifting.

Retail Stocks Just Had Their Best Week Of The Year

Investors are clearly leaning towards the cuts camp. The S&P/ASX 200 Consumer Discretionary index added 8.05 per cent in the week to Friday 12 June, its strongest weekly print of 2026. Bronwyn Allen at Motley Fool Australia notes the standouts were Temple & Webster (up 13.09 per cent), Nick Scali (up 11.71), Light & Wonder (up 9.8), Wesfarmers (up 9.55, the owner of Kmart, Bunnings and Officeworks), Lottery Corp (up 8.81), Lovisa (up 8.66), Super Retail Group (up 8.39, the owner of Rebel and BCF), Harvey Norman (up 7.88), JB Hi-Fi (up 7.6) and Eagers Automotive (up 7.06).

The driver was a brutal consumer sentiment print. Westpac\’s monthly consumer sentiment index fell 3.5 per cent in June to 80.6, near 50-year lows and well below the 100 line that separates optimism from pessimism, per the Macrobusiness round-up. Inflation has also eased to 4.2 per cent in April from 4.6 per cent in March. The market is reading both signals the same way: enough softness for the RBA to start cutting eventually, and a recovery in household spending power once it does.

The shopper takeaway is simple. If you have been holding off on a big-ticket purchase (a sofa, a TV, a laptop), the next twelve months should bring genuinely lower asking prices as retailers compete harder for the cautious consumer. EOFY is the first front in that fight, and Australian retailers are pricing aggressively right now precisely because sentiment is so weak.

Beware The Fake Sitewide: Another $15m Fine

That competitive pressure is also why fake “sitewide” sales keep landing in court. Online mattress retailer Emma Sleep was just hit with a $15 million Federal Court penalty for misleading sale price representations, the same misleading discount conduct that has caught Coles, JB Hi-Fi, Michael Hill, MyHouse and Hairhouse Online over the past twelve months, per the JD Supra competition law round-up. The maximum penalty under the Australian Consumer Law was doubled to $100 million in March, so we should expect bigger numbers from here.

For shoppers chasing genuine EOFY discounts, the warning from Hall & Wilcox associate Ben Hamilton is the most useful test: “the disclaimers or \’fine print\’ won\’t protect a business if the overall impression is misleading,” he wrote in a 12 June client alert. In other words, if the headline says 30 per cent off everything but the asterisks exclude half the catalogue, that is the kind of claim the ACCC is now treating as a $15 million risk. A quick browser-based price-history tracker (free on most big AU sites) is still the fastest way to verify a “was/now” claim before you tap pay.

Top 5 Deals of the Day

Five Aussie Stores, Five Categories

Five stores. Five categories. Today\’s sweep of every retailer on It\’s On Sale, audited at dawn for stock and AU fulfilment.

% discounts shown are indicative across each store\’s sale range. Individual product savings vary.

Our Take

The Big Four banks splitting four ways on the RBA tells you something every shopper already knows: nobody is calling the bottom of this cycle with confidence. What we can call is the retailer behaviour. With sentiment near 50-year lows, every Australian-owned store with stock to move is leaning harder into headline discounts (some genuine, some priced up the week before the sale started), and the ACCC is now landing $15 million penalties on the worst offenders. The shopper job for the next fortnight is to verify before you trust, and to spend where the warranty, returns and ACL protections actually live, which is with Australian-owned retailers that fulfil locally.

That is the gap It\’s On Sale was built to close. We aggregate 35,000 Australian stores and 45,000 live products in one place, every store Australian-owned and locally fulfilled. The Today\’s Sales page surfaces every retailer currently running a promotion (audited daily), our AI search reads the way you actually ask for a deal, and we never carry Temu, Shein, AliExpress or any offshore marketplace dressed up as a local store. In an economy where headlines lie and budgets are tight, that filtering is the savings. It is free, it is Australian, and it is built to keep your EOFY honest. Browse Today\’s Sales before the 30 June clock runs out.

Editorial hero: red WAS/NOW price tag with WAS price struck out, vintage brass magnifying glass and brass JUNE 14 calendar marker on navy marble

Coles Loses Down Down Case | It’s On Sale Daily Brief, 14 June 2026

The Federal Court has just ruled that 13 of 14 Coles “Down Down” tickets put before it were misleading shoppers, the second major retailer caught on pricing in a fortnight after JB Hi-Fi. Meanwhile the ACCC has ordered Amazon, eBay, Kogan and Fruugo to pull listings for banned magnetic toys, Country Road\’s 25 per cent EOFY sale closes tonight, and we line up five fresh Australian sales worth your Sunday.

Coles Loses Down Down Case: 13 Of 14 Tickets Misleading

Justice Michael O\’Bryan of the Federal Court ruled on Thursday that 13 of the 14 Coles “Down Down” tickets considered in the joint liability trial misled Australian shoppers. The conduct ran from February 2022 to May 2023 and covered everyday staples, including 2-litre Coca-Cola, Arnott\’s Shapes multipacks, Karicare Follow On formula, Pedigree wet dog food, Colgate Total toothpaste, Rexona antiperspirant, Lurpak Slightly Salted butter and a 3-pack of Viva paper towels. According to Jack Revell at SBS News, the judge found that “the relevant products were not sold at the \’was\’ price stated on the ticket for a reasonable period,” and “the discount represented on the tickets was not genuine.”

The mechanic the court drilled into matters for every shopper this EOFY. Coles\’s own internal guideline required a 12-week minimum at the higher “was” price before a saving could be claimed, but evidence at trial showed the supermarket was frequently dropping that window to four weeks or less, then printing a “Down Down” red ticket. ACCC barrister Garry Rich pressed the point in court: “Why on earth are you telling your customers your prices are going down? They\’re not.” The legal analysis from Lavan confirms Coles was found to have contravened both section 18(1) (misleading conduct) and section 29(1)(i) (misleading price representations) of the Australian Consumer Law.

The penalty phase is still to come. ACCC Chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb told the court the regulator would “certainly make strong submissions on the level of penalty” and is seeking a “significant deterrent for such conduct,” per Liam Beatty at Yahoo News Australia. Former ACCC chair Allan Fels told SBS the penalty figure could land in the hundreds of millions of dollars range. Further case management was set for 10 June.

How To Spot A Fake Down Down This EOFY

The court\’s 12-week benchmark is now the consumer test you can run yourself. Before you trust a red ticket, do three quick checks. First, take a clear photo of the next price tag (in store or on screen) for a product you buy regularly: in four weeks, compare it to the next “sale” you see on the same item. If the “was” price never showed up in your own history, the discount is suspect. Second, drop the product into a price-history tracker (a free browser add-on covers most big AU sites): a genuine “Down Down” should show the higher price actually charged for an extended block, not a one-week blip. Third, ignore “was” prices that are obviously the original sticker from a year ago, the law expects the comparison to reflect a recent selling price, not the highest number ever printed.

This is the second pricing case to land in a fortnight. JB Hi-Fi began refunding around $250,000 to roughly 200 customers last Thursday over the same issue, “was/now” prices that did not reflect a genuine recent benchmark. Two of Australia\’s biggest retailers, two ACCC actions, one lesson for shoppers: verify, then save.

Amazon, eBay, Kogan And Fruugo Ordered To Pull Magnet Toys

The same week the ACCC was taking apart Coles\’s tickets, the regulator was also ordering Amazon, eBay, Kogan and Fruugo to remove banned magnetic toy listings from their Australian sites. The ACCC said it was investigating the supply of “magnetic chess” and “magnetic battle chess” games containing small high-powered magnets, which are subject to a permanent ban in Australia because of the risk of injury or death if swallowed. Full enforcement update on the ACCC Product Safety site.

The day after the takedown notices went out, consumer advocacy group CHOICE lodged a formal “super complaint” with the ACCC, asking it to investigate what CHOICE describes as a “significant volume” of potentially dangerous products still listed across online marketplaces, per InternetRetailing. The regulator has 90 days to respond. For shoppers buying toys for kids or grandkids this EOFY, the safest path is the same as every other category: buy from Australian-owned specialty retailers with local stock and Australian Consumer Law guarantees, not the cheapest third-party listing on a global marketplace.

Last Call: Country Road EOFY Ends Tonight

If you have been circling a Country Road piece for winter, today is the day. The Australian heritage label\’s EOFY sale runs for one week only and closes tonight (Sunday 14 June), with 25 per cent off full-priced and already-discounted items, per Better Homes & Gardens Australia. That stacks the discount on items already reduced, so it is the deepest cut Country Road runs all year. Mobile shoppers should also note felix mobile\’s 50 per cent off unlimited data offer ends today, flagged in finder.com.au\’s EOFY mobile round-up.

Top 5 Deals of the Day

Five Aussie Stores, Five Categories

Five stores. Five categories. The deepest headline discounts surfaced from a sweep of every retailer on It\’s On Sale, audited at dawn.

% discounts shown are indicative across each store\’s sale range. Individual product savings vary.

Our Take

Two ACCC pricing cases in a fortnight, against two of the country\’s largest retailers, is not a coincidence. It is the inevitable consequence of an EOFY where every retailer is leaning on “was/now” headlines to win share, and where the watchdog has openly named misleading pricing as a 2026 to 2027 enforcement priority. Coles will pay (the only question is how many hundreds of millions), JB Hi-Fi is refunding, and shoppers are left to do the verification work the tickets were supposed to do for us. The court\’s 12-week benchmark is now the rule of thumb that protects your June dollars.

That is the gap It\’s On Sale was built for. We aggregate 35,000 Australian stores and 45,000 live products in one place, every store Australian-owned and locally fulfilled (so the warranty, the returns, the ACL protections actually mean something when something goes wrong). Our AI search reads the way shoppers ask questions, the Today\’s Sales page surfaces every store currently running a promotion, and we never carry Temu, Shein, AliExpress or any offshore marketplace dressed up as a local store. It is free, it is Australian, and it is built to keep your EOFY honest. Browse Today\’s Sales before the 30 June clock runs out.

Editorial flat-lay with magnifying glass over a WAS/NOW price tag at 50% off, leather notebook, eucalyptus and bottlebrush, with a navy panel showing the It's On Sale Daily Brief headline for Issue 13

JB Hi-Fi To Refund $250,000 | It’s On Sale Daily Brief, 13 June 2026

Two-and-a-half weeks of EOFY trading and one of the country’s biggest electronics chains has just been told to hand $250,000 back. JB Hi-Fi will refund roughly 200 customers after the consumer watchdog raised concerns its “was” prices on 17 products were not what they were claimed to be. The timing is awkward, the lesson is useful, and Dyson is meanwhile running its sharpest sale of the year. Here is how to keep your June dollars honest.

JB Hi-Fi Refunding $250,000 Over “Was/Now” Pricing

The ACCC confirmed on Thursday that JB Hi-Fi has started refunding more than $250,000 to about 200 customers after raising concerns that its “was/now” pricing on 17 products misled shoppers. According to Anna Macdonald at Lawyerly, the investigation covered the retailer’s online pricing between March and September 2025. The watchdog said the advertised “was” prices were either never charged, charged only briefly, or charged so long before the promotion that they no longer reflected the recent selling price.

Yahoo Finance Australia, citing the same ACCC statement, reports that the products in question span phone cases, charging cables, power banks, a portable heater, two laptops, a gaming monitor and a Meta Quest 3S VR headset. The watchdog accepted that the misleading prices were “primarily the result of system errors or human mistakes” (its words), some of which JB Hi-Fi had already corrected before the investigation began. The retailer’s full coverage on the consumer regulator’s site appears on the ACCC advertising and promotions page.

If you bought any of the affected products in 2025, you do not need to lift a finger. JB Hi-Fi is contacting eligible customers directly and processing refunds automatically where it can. The full eleven-item product and dates list (compiled from the ACCC statement) is posted in detail on OzBargain’s community thread, and it covers Cygnett charging gear, Dimplex heater, EFM cases, HP and Lenovo laptops, an LG UltraGear gaming monitor, the Meta Quest 3S, and a pair of Otterbox iPhone cases.

How To Spot A Fake “Was” Price This EOFY

This is a fortnight when “was/now” tags are everywhere. Use a quick three-step check before you click buy. First, search the exact product name in Google Shopping and the manufacturer’s own site: if no retailer ever sold it at the “was” price, the saving is a fiction. Second, drop the product link into a price-history tracker (a few free Chrome add-ons read Amazon and big-box AU sites) and look at the 90-day chart, not just yesterday. Third, when a “was” price is from more than six months ago, treat it as a list price, not a recent selling price: the law expects the “was” to reflect what the product genuinely traded at recently, not the highest sticker ever printed.

The JB Hi-Fi case is the third Australian retail giant in eight months to settle “was/now” or comparative-pricing concerns. Coles is still in front of the Federal Court over its “Down Down” campaign, and Woolworths copped a related accounting earlier in the year. CHOICE flagged a fresh example this week from a different category: it called out Appliances Online’s “36% off” Bosch 9kg heat pump dryer as not a genuine discount once the long-term selling price was checked. The full CHOICE write-up appears in its best-and-worst EOFY 2026 round-up.

Dyson’s EOFY Cuts Run To 1 July

The counterweight to careful shopping is knowing where the real discounts live. Dyson’s 2026 EOFY sale runs from 4 June to 1 July, with up to 50 per cent off and savings as deep as $651 on the flagship vacuum. Brittany Davies at 7News first pulled out the headline picks: the Gen5detect Absolute drops from $1,549 to $898, the V16 Piston Animal with Floor Dok lands at $1,049 (was $1,399), and the V15 Detect Absolute with Dok goes from $1,299 to $899.

The beauty range is the other half of the sale. The Airwrap i.d. multi-styler falls from $849 to $597, the Airstrait straightener-and-dryer from $749 to $495, and the Supersonic Nural hair dryer from $749 to $497. Sophie Bird at Tom’s Guide notes that the V16 Piston now stacks with a SAVEPISTON checkout code for the full $350 off, and confirms the sale ends 1 July (so the deepest cuts are this week and next, not late June). For the full discounted line-up and stock check, TechRadar Australia keeps a live deal list.

The Confidence Picture Behind The Sales

The reason these deals matter more than usual this year is the household budget. The Westpac-Melbourne Institute consumer sentiment index fell 2.9 per cent in early June, sliding back toward the low end of the range it has bumped along in for the past three years. Westpac’s head of Australian macro-forecasting, Matthew Hassan, told AAP that “cost-of-living issues came back with a vengeance in June” (his words). The same week, NAB joined CBA and ANZ in calling the cash rate to hold at 4.35 per cent for the rest of 2026, with Westpac the last big bank still pencilling in another hike.

Consumer inflation expectations also stayed elevated at 5.5 per cent in June, per the latest AMP weekly market update. Translation for shoppers: there is no quick relief coming from rates, the price you see today is roughly the price you have to plan around. That makes the “was/now” check above more than a curiosity, it is the difference between a real saving and a story.

Top 5 Deals of the Day

Five Aussie Stores, Five Categories

Five stores. Five categories. The deepest headline discounts surfaced from a sweep of every retailer on It’s On Sale, audited at dawn.

% discounts shown are indicative across each store’s sale range. Individual product savings vary.

Our Take

This week tells two stories at once. A 49-year-old Australian specialty retailer is winding up because suppliers and lenders ran out of patience, while a Friday afternoon ACCC announcement reminds us that even the biggest chains can drift into pricing that is not what shoppers think it is. Both are symptoms of the same retail moment: thinner margins, busier marketing, and shoppers carrying the weight of figuring out which “discount” is real.

That is the gap It’s On Sale was built for. We currently aggregate 35,000 Australian stores and 45,000 live products in one place, all locally owned and locally fulfilled (so the warranty, returns and consumer-law protections actually mean something). Our AI search reads the way real shoppers ask questions, the Today’s Sales page surfaces every store currently running a promotion, and we never carry Temu, Shein, AliExpress or any offshore marketplace dressed up as a local store. It is free, it is Australian, and it is built to keep your June dollars honest. Browse Today’s Sales before the 30 June EOFY clock runs out.

Editorial flat-lay with vintage BBQ grill, sausages, brass JUNE 12 calendar tag, leather notebook, eucalyptus and bottle-brush on navy marble

Barbeques Galore Closes The Lid | It’s On Sale Daily Brief, 12 June 2026

Forty-nine years on the floor, and then a Tuesday afternoon staff meeting. Barbeques Galore is winding up from 16 June, 62 company-owned stores will shut, and 500 staff are losing their jobs. While one of the country’s best-known specialty retailers turns out the lights, Bing Lee, JB Hi-Fi and The Good Guys are slugging it out for EOFY 2026 wallet share with the deepest washing-machine and TV cuts of the year. The collapse and the war are the same story told from opposite ends of the high street. Here is what shoppers need to do this week.

Barbeques Galore Closes The Lid

Barbeques Galore will begin winding up its 62 company-owned stores from 16 June 2026 after a $5 million rescue plan from primary lender Gordon Brothers collapsed at the final hurdle. The 49-year-old Australian retailer, founded by Max Mason in Sydney in 1977, first entered voluntary administration in February after its key lender pulled a crucial revolving credit facility, leaving the business with $49 million in debts. According to Daniel Ziffer at ABC News, court filings showed $33.2 million owed to unsecured creditors, $15.2 million to secured creditors, and $3.9 million in unpaid staff entitlements.

The deed of company arrangement received overwhelming support from creditors on 22 May, but as Tamera Francis at Inside Retail Australia first confirmed this week, the parties could not finalise commercial trading terms with key suppliers (the H&H group, makers of the Ziegler & Brown Ziggy range, is cited in trade reporting). Without those terms, Gordon Brothers withdrew. Receivers Quentin Olde, Luke Pittorino and Liam Healey of Ankura have taken control alongside administrators Grant Thornton. Newly-appointed CEO David White had called the February administration “necessary” at the time; this week’s announcement closes the chapter.

The geographic hit is national. According to reporting from 7News, the closures break down as 33 stores in NSW, 19 in Victoria, 18 in Queensland, 14 in WA, 5 in SA, 3 in Tasmania, 2 in the ACT and 1 in the NT. The 27 franchise stores are unaffected for now and will keep trading independently. The Perth angle was sharpest: Troy de Ruyter at PerthNow confirmed all 14 WA stores will close, and a follow-up ABC report spotlit the franchise families now staring down an uncertain summer trading season.

What Barbeques Galore Customers Should Do This Week

If you hold a Barbeques Galore gift card, the deadline is firm: 30 June 2026. There is a sting in the terms, however. Gift cards will only be honoured if you spend twice the card value in cash on top. A $50 card requires a $150 total purchase to redeem. After 30 June it is unclear whether any stores will continue to accept them. The practical move is to use the card this week, before stock is picked over and the cash-multiplier rule eats further into the saving.

If you have an outstanding online order, contact the Barbeques Galore customer-service line or Grant Thornton (the appointed administrators) and keep every receipt, tracking number and email. Customer-facing operations will continue during the sell-through period, but the timeline is short. If you have a warranty claim on a BBQ, heater or outdoor furniture, those claims now sit inside the administration process and the outcome will depend on the receivers’ final structure. Photograph your serial plate, your proof of purchase and the fault, and lodge the claim in writing this week.

For your next BBQ, the specialty market does not end with this collapse. Weber’s authorised dealer network, BBQ Spit Rotisseries in Melbourne, and a long list of independent Australian outdoor-living specialists continue to trade. The big-box pivot is also live: Bunnings, Harvey Norman and The Good Guys all carry the major brands the chain stocked, with the manufacturer warranty intact regardless of whose checkout you go through.

The EOFY Appliance War Is The Other Half Of This Story

While specialty retail contracts, the big-box appliance giants are firing on all cylinders into 30 June. Macquarie’s consumer spending tracker for May, reported via ChannelNews this week, shows both JB Hi-Fi and Harvey Norman running stronger April and May 2026 momentum than the same months last year. The March-quarter comparable-sales prints back it: JB Hi-Fi Australia +2.6 per cent, JB Hi-Fi New Zealand +15.2 per cent, The Good Guys +2.5 per cent. The Good Guys posted A$1.58 billion in first-half sales, up 4.1 per cent.

The headline-grabbing cuts this week are coming from Bing Lee, which has slashed its full appliance range. The standout: the LG 14kg XL Series AI Front Loading Washing Machine at $999, down from $1,599 (a $600 saving). The Midea 14-Place Dishwasher has been knocked to $379. The Hitachi 374L Inox Top Mount Fridge is $100 off. The Sunbeam Alinea Digital DiamondForce 4L Air Fryer drops to $75, the lowest spotted this season. Dreame’s Z30 Cordless Stick Vacuum is nearly $500 off retail. Bing Lee is Australian-owned, NSW-based, and runs over 40 stores plus full national online delivery.

LG has followed with its EOFY home entertainment range, reported by Trevor Long at EFTM. The 77-inch OLED evo AI C6 4K Smart TV is $3,999 (was $5,499), a $1,500 cut. The 65-inch model is $2,999 (was $3,999). The 75-inch QNED80B is up to $700 off at JB Hi-Fi and Harvey Norman; the 85-inch is up to $1,000 off. The LG S95TR 9.1.5 surround soundbar with rear speakers is $999, a $700 saving. All run until 1 July.

One Choice warning is worth banking before you click buy. The consumer group’s best and worst EOFY 2026 deals roundup flags the Fisher & Paykel Series 5 7kg dryer as a recurring genuine best buy across the major appliance retailers. The same article calls out Appliances Online’s 36 per cent off Bosch 9kg heat pump dryer as not really a discount at all once you compare it to the typical street price over the last six months. EOFY headline tags do not always survive a price-history check.

One more EOFY hook worth knowing if you run a small business or work as a sole trader. The instant asset write-off currently lets you immediately deduct eligible assets under $20,000 per item in the year of purchase, for businesses with aggregated turnover below $10 million, according to the latest Reckon guidance. From 1 July 2026 the threshold drops back to $1,000 unless the government extends it. A new fridge for the workshop, a coffee machine for the office or a laptop for the kids’ tax-deductible tutoring all need to be operational by 30 June to claim on this year’s return.

Top 5 Deals of the Day

Today’s catch. Five Australian-owned or AU-stocked stores, five categories, all rotated fresh. Yesterday’s leaders are cooled down; the hunter never works the same patch two days running.

% discounts shown are indicative across each store’s sale range. Individual product savings vary.

Our Take

Barbeques Galore’s collapse and the appliance giants’ EOFY firepower are two halves of the same picture. Offshore funnels and Chinese supplier pressure squeeze specialty retailers from one side, while the big-box chains lean on scale and rebate dollars to win the other. The shopper sitting in the middle of that fight needs a simpler way to know where the genuine Australian deals are, fast.

That is exactly what we built It’s On Sale for. Over 35,000 Australian stores, locally owned and locally fulfilled. More than 45,000 live products with current pricing. An AI-powered search that surfaces what is actually discounted today, not what was on sale a month ago. A daily Today’s Sales feed (the same pool this morning’s Top 5 came from) refreshed at dawn. And not a single overseas marketplace clouding the results. Free for shoppers, always. Browse Today’s Sales before EOFY 2026 closes on 30 June.

Editorial hero showing scales of justice, Australian Consumer Law journal, ACCC product safety pamphlet, kids backpack with plush toy, Australian coins, brass JUNE 11 calendar marker on navy marble

The ACCC Takes Amazon To Federal Court | It’s On Sale Daily Brief, 11 June 2026

Cheapest is not safest. The ACCC has just dragged Amazon into the Federal Court over kids’ backpacks that sat in its Australian warehouses without the warning labels mandatory product safety law requires. It is the first time the watchdog has taken an online marketplace to court for failing the rules that govern every other Australian retailer. Read it alongside this morning’s Westpac consumer sentiment print, which sank to 80.6, and a clearer picture emerges. Australian shoppers are tighter than they have been since April, the offshore funnel is under regulatory scrutiny, and EOFY 2026 has nineteen trading days to run. 35,000 Aussie stores. One search. That is the offer this week.

The ACCC Takes Amazon To Federal Court

On 29 May the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission filed Federal Court proceedings against Amazon Commercial Services Pty Ltd, the local Amazon entity, over Unicorn Toddler Backpacks listed on amazon.com.au through a third-party seller. The backpacks contained a detachable light-up unicorn plush toy powered by a button battery, and the ACCC alleges the products and their outer packaging carried none of the warnings the Consumer Goods (Products Containing Button/Coin Batteries) Information Standard 2020 makes mandatory. The case is filed as NSD905/2026 in the New South Wales Registry.

The numbers in the concise statement are small but the principle is enormous. The ACCC alleges 41 backpacks were sold to Australian consumers through the marketplace and 267 backpacks were held in Amazon’s Australian fulfilment centres as of 1 November 2022. Crucially, the watchdog argues that under section 136(3) of the Australian Consumer Law, mere possession or control of non-compliant goods (the receiving, storing, picking, packing and shipping that Amazon does for third-party sellers under Fulfilment by Amazon) is enough to put the marketplace itself on the hook. That neatly sidesteps the long-running argument over whether marketplaces are suppliers or just middlemen.

This is the first time the ACCC has taken an online marketplace to the Federal Court over a mandatory product safety standard. Catriona Lowe, ACCC Deputy Chair, framed the consumer stakes: “Button batteries pose a serious hazard for young children. If swallowed or inserted, they can cause severe internal burns and injury, and in some cases death.” On the marketplace question she added: “Many Australian consumers now shop on online marketplaces. That’s why it is important that consumers have confidence and trust in digital markets.” The ACCC is seeking declarations, penalties, costs and other orders, and David Braue at Information Age notes that unsafe products in digital markets sit explicitly inside the watchdog’s 2026/2027 enforcement priorities.

Why This Lands Differently For Shoppers

The case lands in a market where Choice already did the awkward homework. In late November the consumer group bought 24 button-battery products from Amazon, Shein, eBay, AliExpress and Kogan and 17 of the 24 failed the mandatory standards, the result reported across Information Age and now sitting alongside Choice’s “super complaint” to the ACCC, which the regulator must respond to within 90 days. The ACCC’s own 2023 surveillance pegged 34 per cent of products containing button batteries as missing mandatory warnings. Each one of those products quietly went out the door before anyone in fulfilment caught the gap.

For consumers the practical read is this. The big offshore marketplaces are now under simultaneous pressure from the regulator (Federal Court action plus takedown notices), a consumer advocacy group (Choice’s super complaint, which targets Amazon, eBay, Kogan and Fruugo by name), and the political class (multiple Senate references on online product safety in the last six weeks). None of that is a reason to panic about every Amazon order. It is a reason to know what protections sit behind whichever store you are buying from when the product is going to a child.

Australian-owned retailers carry the same mandatory standards by default and are routinely audited by state and territory consumer protection agencies. They also tend to ship from inside the country, which means returns are short, recall notices reach you, and customer-service answers a phone. That is not a marketing claim. That is the structural difference between buying from a marketplace and buying from a retailer.

Consumer Sentiment Sinks Again Ahead Of EOFY

The second number worth pinning to the fridge today is the June Westpac-Melbourne Institute Consumer Sentiment Index. Westpac IQ published the print at 80.6, a 2.9 per cent fall from May and back near the deep-pessimism territory the index has not climbed out of since the start of the year. Matthew Hassan, Westpac Senior Economist, summarised it directly: “Cost-of-living issues came back with a vengeance in June.” The two sub-indices that map most tightly to retail spending both fell harder than the headline. The “family finances vs a year ago” reading dropped 7.5 per cent to 67.3, and “family finances over the next 12 months” dropped 8.5 per cent to 85.1, both giving back almost all of the gains they posted in May.

Layer that on top of the RBA cash rate at 4.35 per cent following May’s hike, and the picture is a consumer wallet that is open for value but closed for impulse. Hassan summed up the mood: “Australian consumers are clearly bracing for more bad news on the financial front.” Retailers reading this morning’s tape will be pricing the back half of EOFY 2026 accordingly, and the deepest discount tags of the financial year traditionally arrive in the final fortnight. That fortnight starts on Monday.

Top 5 Deals of the Day

Today’s catch. Five Australian-owned or AU-stocked stores, five categories, all rotated fresh. Yesterday’s leaders are cooled down; the hunter never works the same patch two days running.

% discounts shown are indicative across each store’s sale range. Individual product savings vary.

Other Deals Worth a Look

Two deeper headline numbers in the pool today did not make the Top 5 because the categories were already filled or because the store has been rotated out under our three-day cooldown rule, but they earn a look. Showpo is at 60 per cent off on dresses, knits and party wear from the Sydney-founded label. Strandbags is also at 60 per cent off on Samsonite, American Tourister and its own luggage and handbag lines, with free Click & Collect at any of its 230 Australian stores. Both Australian-owned, both locally fulfilled.

The Counter-Funnel

So here is the brief, plainly.

The offshore funnel is real. It is fast. It is one click away. And as of last week it is also a defendant in the Federal Court of Australia over the kind of safety warning that every other Australian retailer has been quietly printing on packaging for four years.

What the day’s tape does not show is the other map. The one with 35,000 Australian retailers on it. Stores that hire locally. Stores that stock locally. Stores whose customer-service team you can reach by phone on a Tuesday. They are not absent from the internet. They are scattered across it.

That is the problem It’s On Sale was built to solve. Not to compete with Amazon on velocity. Not to out-distribute Temu. To do the one thing the offshore funnel cannot do, which is surface every genuine Australian sale, from every Australian store, in one search, every day, before lunch.

35,000 Aussie Stores. One Search. That is the offer. That is the whole offer.

The ACCC case will play out over months. Consumer sentiment will move. The funnel will keep tilting. We will keep doing what we do, which is auditing the Australian retail pool at dawn, ranking the deepest live deals, publishing the brief by 9am, and keeping the door open to every Aussie store that wants to be found.

This is the counter-funnel. It is already built. It is already here. It’s On Sale.

Editorial flat-lay hero with brass perpetual calendar marker showing June 10, leather notebook, freight labels and counter-funnel imagery

It’s On Sale Daily Brief, Issue 10 (10 June 2026) | The Funnel Is Tilting Offshore

Australian shoppers spent the last week being told they’re now deal hunters. This morning, three more numbers landed. Amazon, Temu and Shein are forecast to take 36 per cent of Australian e-commerce revenue in 2026. Amazon alone takes roughly one of every five dollars Australians spend online. And more than one in two Australians now say Amazon has raised their expectations of every other retailer. None of this is a complaint about offshore retail. It is a brief about a quiet asymmetry: the offshore funnel is fast, certain and one click away. The Australian funnel is great stores, scattered. 35,000 Aussie stores. One search. That is the point.

The Funnel Is Tilting Offshore

The headline number landed yesterday and it is the single cleanest read of where Australian e-commerce sits in mid-2026. Amazon, Temu and Shein are forecast to take a combined 36 per cent of every dollar spent online in this country in 2026, with Amazon alone accounting for roughly one in every five. The figure comes from Shippit’s 2026 State of Shipping report, written up across the wires this week by Michael West Media via AAP and republished by PerthNow. The same Shippit data shows 82.8 per cent of Australian retailers are now worried about competing with offshore marketplaces, up from 54 per cent in 2024 (see Shippit’s own commentary in Delivered, 1 June). That is a 29-point swing in 18 months. It is not a soft trend. It is the dominant story of the year for Australian retail.

The pressure cuts both ways. Shippit also pegs the average delivery cost in Australia at $11.30 per parcel, up roughly 9 per cent from $10.39 a year earlier, with more than 71 per cent of carriers citing fuel volatility as their number-one operational challenge and more than two in five having implemented a fuel surcharge. Aussie retailers are paying more to fulfil the same parcel that Amazon’s fulfilment network ships at scale. None of that is the retailers’ fault. It is the structure of the market.

Shippit co-CEO Rob Hango-Zada, speaking to AAP, framed the policy stakes plainly: “Protecting Australian retail and encouraging greater competition is super important, not just for the consumer, but also for the national economy.” The data is doing the rest of the talking.

The Asymmetry: Speed, Certainty, Expectation

The offshore funnel does not just compete on price. It competes on the boring stuff that quietly defines whether a sale converts. Shippit’s report shows Australian retailers are now advertising a 5.2-day delivery promise against an actual transit average of 2.2 days. That gap, where retailers under-promise to protect against the rare failure, is exactly what the offshore players exploit on the listing page. Hango-Zada called it out directly: “Retailers are essentially under-promising so they can over-deliver, but it has a massive impact on conversions.”

The expectation side is starker still. More than one in two Australians now say Amazon has raised their expectations of every other retailer they shop with. Cross-reference that with the Australia Post 2026 eCommerce Report, which puts Amazon AU inside 60 per cent of Australian households and Temu’s reach at 47 per cent. The funnel is not theoretical. It is sitting on more than half the country’s phones, and it has trained an entire shopping reflex.

What To Watch This Morning

Two macro reads land before lunch and both will inflect how retailers price the rest of EOFY. The Westpac Consumer Sentiment Index for June printed at 80.6, down 2.9 per cent on the month, sitting deep in the pessimist territory it has held since April. NAB Business Confidence releases at 11:30am AEST and the prior month’s NAB read showed retail price growth easing back to 1.5 per cent quarterly, the softest in two years. Wesfarmers hosts its strategy briefing in Sydney today. Click Frenzy fires from 7pm AEST 18 June. EOFY closes 30 June. The last fortnight of the financial year is where the deepest discount tags traditionally land across whitegoods, tech and furniture, and the deferral data from yesterday’s brief tells you exactly which categories are about to move.

Top 5 Deals of the Day

Today’s catch. Five Australian-owned or AU-stocked stores, five categories, all rotated fresh. Yesterday’s leaders are cooled down; the hunter never works the same patch two days running.

% discounts shown are indicative across each store’s sale range. Individual product savings vary.

Other Deals Worth a Look

Five deeper headline numbers in the pool today did not make the Top 5 because the categories were already taken or because the store has been rotated out under our three-day cooldown rule, but they earn a look. Rebel is still at up to 85% off on footwear and fan gear. Mossman is at 70% on its full womens collection. Eckersley’s Art & Craft is at 70% on paints, canvases and student bundles. Veronika Maine is at 70% on tailoring and occasion wear. Glassons is at 63% on knits and basics. All Australian-owned, all locally fulfilled.

The Counter-Funnel

So here is the brief, plainly.

The offshore funnel is real. It is fast. It is one click away. And it is forecast to take 36 cents of every Australian e-commerce dollar this year. That is not a complaint. That is the data.

What the data does not show is the other map. The one with 35,000 Australian retailers on it. Stores that hire locally. Stores that stock locally. Stores whose customer-service team you can reach by phone on a Tuesday. They are not absent from the internet. They are scattered across it.

That is the problem It’s On Sale was built to solve. Not to compete with Amazon on velocity. Not to out-distribute Temu. To do the one thing the offshore funnel cannot do, which is surface every genuine Australian sale, from every Australian store, in one search, every day, before lunch.

35,000 Aussie Stores. One Search. That is the offer. That is the whole offer.

The funnel will keep tilting. Amazon will keep raising expectations. Temu and Shein will keep advertising on every feed you scroll. We will keep doing what we do, which is auditing the Australian retail pool at dawn, ranking the deepest live deals, publishing the brief by 9am, and keeping the door open to every Aussie store that wants to be found.

This is the counter-funnel. It is already built. It is already here. It’s On Sale.

Editorial flat-lay with brass perpetual calendar showing JUNE 09, magnifying glass over a map of Australia, for the Itu2019s On Sale Daily Brief Issue 09

This Is Our Turf | It’s On Sale Daily Brief, 9 June 2026

Three separate 2026 reports landed in the same week and told the same story. Australians are now deal hunters. 81% shop around. 73% wait for the sale. 79% will not buy their preferred brand at full price. The data has caught up to why we built It’s On Sale, so here is a clean answer to all of it: this is our turf. One curated map of every genuine Australian retail sale, refreshed every morning, audited at dawn. You hunt the best deals. We already did.

Australia Is Now A Nation Of Deal Hunters

The Australia Post 2026 eCommerce Report is the clearest read yet on what cost-of-living has done to Australian shopping behaviour. 81% of Aussies now actively shop around for the best deal. 73% wait for sales events before they buy. The average household now buys from 16 different retailers across a year, double what it was a decade ago. The average basket has slid to $96, down ten dollars from 2020 in real terms. Australia Post itself uses the phrase “shopper promiscuity” to describe what is happening, and Nugget Digital’s breakdown of the report calls it the end of single-retailer loyalty.

The EOFY 2026 research from Kogan and PureProfile, reported by Sue Wells in 7News, layers in the EOFY-specific behaviour. 79% of Australians say they will not buy their preferred brand if it is not on sale. 37% will actively switch to a cheaper competitor brand. 49% have intentionally delayed buying a necessary high-value item (a fridge, a laptop, a TV) for three months or more, specifically to wait for an EOFY discount. 69% are enforcing an under-$500 EOFY spending limit. Australians are not buying less. They are buying smarter, slower and more strategically than at any point in the post-pandemic period.

The third corroboration came on 2 June from the Power Retail and Arktic Fox State of eCommerce 2026 report. Teresa Sperti, Director of Arktic Fox, summed up what retailers are seeing from the other side of the counter: “The findings reveal a market at a genuine inflection point.” 97.8% of retailers now rate eCommerce growth as strategically critical. 78.6% concede their loyalty programs need to evolve. Price has officially eclipsed brand as the deciding factor in where Australians shop.

This Is Our Turf

It’s On Sale was built for exactly this Australia. One curated directory of Australian-owned retailers actually running sales right now, with the deepest headline discounts surfaced every morning. No overseas marketplaces. No drop-shippers. No expired offer pages. Each store gets a live audit at dawn so the homepage only shows sales that are actually live. The Top 6 ticker on the homepage refreshes daily. The Daily Brief lands at 8am AEST every weekday. The Top 5 Deals of the Day rotates so the same stores never run two days in a row, which is the editorial proof that we are reading the live pool, not recycling a list.

If 81% of you are already shopping around and 73% are already waiting for the sale, the work has shifted. The question is no longer “is this on sale?” but “where is the best version of this sale, today?”. That is what we do. The hunting is the platform. You bring the wishlist; we bring the map.

What To Watch This Morning: Two Confidence Reads

Two data drops land before lunch and both feed straight back into how retailers price the rest of EOFY. The Westpac Melbourne Institute Consumer Sentiment Index releases at 10:30am AEST, followed by NAB Business Confidence at 11:30am AEST. IG flagged both as the week’s key local data points. If consumer sentiment stays at the three-year low it printed in last month’s KPMG Retail Health Index (80.1, down from 91.6), expect retailers to push harder into the deferred big-ticket categories (whitegoods, tech, furniture) over the next ten days. The RBA cash rate decision lands Monday 16 June; Click Frenzy fires from 7pm AEST Thursday 18 June. EOFY closes 30 June.

Top 5 Deals of the Day

Today’s catch. Five stores, five categories, all fresh ground. Yesterday’s leaders are cooled down; the hunter never works the same patch two days running.

% discounts shown are indicative across each store’s sale range. Individual product savings vary.

Other Deals Worth a Look

Three deeper headline numbers in the pool today did not make the Top 5 because their categories were already taken, but they earn a look. Sportsgirl is still at up to 90% off on its runway and EOFY clearance for womens fashion. Rebel is at up to 85% off on fan gear and footwear. Elite Supplements is at up to 80% off on protein and recovery. For homewares specifically, Glassons is at 63% on knits and basics. Original Mattress Factory is at 60% on its Cloud 9 range, and Robert Gordon Pottery is at 60% on its handmade Australian ceramics. All Australian-owned, all locally fulfilled.

Reader Takeaway

The data confirms what most households already know in their bones. Strategic shopping is the new default, not a frugality tactic. EOFY week three opens tomorrow and the deepest cuts will land between now and 30 June. Bookmark itsonsale.com.au, check the Top 6 ticker on the homepage every morning, and let the Daily Brief filter the 124 stores currently running sales down to the five worth a serious look today. You hunt the best deals. We already did.

Editorial flat-lay of a budget journal with a magnifying glass on a falling bar chart, eucalyptus, kraft shopping bag and orange ribbon, navy marble surface — It's On Sale Daily Brief Issue 08, 8 June 2026

Sentiment Hits A Three-Year Low As EOFY Week Two Lands | It’s On Sale Daily Brief, 8 June 2026

Most of the country wakes to a King’s Birthday long weekend with EOFY week two firing on every category, but the mood music underneath is heavy. KPMG’s June Retail Health Index shows consumer sentiment crashed from 91.6 to 80.1, the steepest single-month drop since 2023. Three rate hikes earlier this year still bite, the next RBA call lands 16 June, and 73% of households are now waiting for sales events before they spend. The discounts are real this week. The plan needs to be real too.

Sentiment Crashes 11.5 Points As Households Tighten Up

The June Retail Health Index from KPMG, authored by Chief Economist Dr Brendan Rynne, shows the Westpac to Melbourne Institute Consumer Sentiment Index tumbled from 91.6 in March to 80.1 in April. That is the sharpest one-month fall since the cost-of-living crunch of 2023, and the index has now slipped back into clearly pessimistic territory after holding above the neutral 100 line through most of 2024.

The headline RHI itself nudged from -0.41 to -0.39 over the December to March quarters, which Dr Rynne notes is technically an improvement, but everything except sentiment is moving sideways. Inflation-adjusted retail turnover fell 0.6% in the March quarter. The household saving ratio dropped from 6.9% to 6.4%, suggesting families are dipping into savings rather than building them. KPMG does not expect a sustained recovery in retail until late calendar 2027.

For shoppers the takeaway is twofold. First, 73% of Australian households now actively wait for sale events before they buy, and 81% shop around for the best deal. That is a structural shift toward EOFY, Click Frenzy and Boxing Day as the only viable buying windows. Second, the spending that does happen is concentrated in essentials: groceries alone now make up 32% of total online spend, fashion 20%, health and beauty 11%. Deferrable categories (furniture, white goods, big-ticket tech) are where the deepest EOFY discounts will land this week.

King’s Birthday Long Weekend: Two-Speed Retail

Today is the King’s Birthday public holiday in NSW, Victoria, the ACT, South Australia, Tasmania and the Northern Territory, which gives most of the country a three-day shopping window. Queensland and Western Australia trade as normal (Queensland observes the holiday on 5 October, WA on 28 September), so Brisbane and Perth readers are looking at a regular Monday.

The practical retail consequence is timing. Southern-state shoppers should expect quieter physical stores at opening, then a midmorning surge through David Jones, Myer and JB Hi-Fi, with online traffic running heaviest from late afternoon. David Jones is currently flagging up to 50% off fashion and homeware (offer expires 8 June, today). Myer’s EOFY runs to 30 June with savings across appliances, beauty, tech, luggage and home brands.

The smart play if you are in a holiday state is to lock in your one or two biggest planned purchases this morning (online beats the queues), then leave the smaller browsing for tomorrow when the rush has passed. If you are in Queensland or WA, your weekly shop sits in the quietest day of the EOFY window, which is its own advantage.

What To Watch This Week: Rate Decision, Business Confidence, Click Frenzy

Three macro signals land between now and next Monday that all feed back into how aggressively retailers price the second half of EOFY. The NAB Business Confidence release lands at 11:30am AEST on Tuesday 9 June (tomorrow), and the read on retailers’ own outlook will shape how willing they are to discount deeper into late June. IG flagged this as the week’s key local data point.

The RBA cash rate decision lands Monday 16 June. The cash rate currently sits at 4.35% after three hikes earlier in 2026, and consensus is leaning toward a hold, but any hawkish commentary from Governor Bullock would tighten consumer spend immediately. Then on Thursday 18 June at 7pm AEST, Click Frenzy returns for a week-long EOFY event, free for retailers to participate. Co-founder Gabby Leibovich confirmed the platform expects a broader retailer lineup than 2024 thanks to the no-fee model.

Top 5 Deals of the Day

Five stores. Five categories. The deepest headline discounts surfaced from a sweep of every retailer on It’s On Sale, audited at dawn.

% discounts shown are indicative across each store’s sale range. Individual product savings vary.

Other Deals Worth a Look

Beyond the Top 5, a handful of strong supporting acts are running in the Today’s Sales pool. DECJUBA is at up to 70% off sitewide fashion. Veronika Maine is also at 70% across its workwear and occasion edits. Colette Hayman is at 69% across bags and accessories. Glassons is at 63% across knits and basics. For homewares specifically, Dusk is at 60% on candles, diffusers and gifting, and Original Mattress Factory is at 60% on its Cloud 9 range.

Reader Takeaway

Sentiment is at a three-year low, but the discounts are genuinely deep this EOFY week. The discipline that has been forced on households (planning, waiting, shopping around) is the same discipline that turns a sale event into actual value. If you have a long weekend, use the quiet morning for the one or two big-ticket items you actually planned for. Keep the rest of the browse for tomorrow. Watch NAB business confidence at 11:30am AEST Tuesday, the RBA decision next Monday, and Click Frenzy from 7pm Thursday 18 June.

It's On Sale Daily Brief Issue 07, 7 June 2026: Child safety crackdown on overseas marketplaces

CHOICE Calls Out Amazon, Temu and AliExpress | It’s On Sale Daily Brief, 7 June 2026

Consumer group CHOICE has filed a formal complaint over banned and unsafe products still listed on Amazon, Temu, AliExpress and eBay. The ACCC has ordered four marketplaces to delist magnetic chess-style games carrying a deadly ingestion risk. Amazon’s Mid-Year Sale ends tonight, which is exactly the moment to step back, breathe out, and look at the AU-owned EOFY catalogue running deeper than anything on Haul.

CHOICE Calls Out Amazon, Temu and AliExpress Over Banned Kids’ Products

Consumer advocacy group CHOICE has lodged a formal complaint with the consumer regulator after finding that prohibited and unsafe products continue to be sold through Amazon, Temu, AliExpress and eBay, ABC News reported on 3 June. The items flagged include novelty cigarettes that emit smoke, toy-like lighters, detachable tongue studs with choking risk, flammable clothing and toys containing potentially lethal button batteries.

CHOICE campaign director Andy Kelly told the ABC that online sellers often portray themselves as intermediaries to deflect responsibility onto third-party vendors. “This legal gap permits online marketplaces to continue selling these unsafe items with minimal repercussions,” Kelly said. CHOICE wants the federal government to introduce a general safety provision that would force every business, marketplace included, to take responsibility for the safety of what they ship.

The complaint follows the ACCC’s recent Federal Court action against Amazon over unicorn toddler backpacks missing button-battery warnings, the first time the watchdog has tested an online marketplace under product safety law. Kelly called that case a significant test of Amazon’s accountability. For Australian parents the shopper takeaway is consistent. If it touches a child, prefer an AU-owned retailer with local fulfilment, a phone number that rings, and product compliance you can verify before checkout.

ACCC Orders Four Marketplaces to Delist Magnetic Toys

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has issued removal orders to Amazon, eBay, Kogan and Fruugo, requiring them to delist magnetic chess-style games that contain small high-powered magnets banned under Australian Consumer Law since 2012, Retail Insight Network reported on 1 June. The ban covers any product with detachable high-powered magnets small enough to be swallowed, including toys, games, construction kits and jewellery.

ACCC deputy chair Catriona Lowe warned that “high-powered magnets can cause life-threatening injuries, particularly to young children. Magnets can link together in the intestine or tissue. They are also a choking risk.” All four platforms have agreed to remove the listings and contact affected customers with safety notifications. Kogan, Amazon and Fruugo have either issued or agreed to issue refunds. The regulator is also seeking commitments that the same or similar items will not be relisted by other sellers.

For parents and grandparents currently shopping for school holiday and birthday gifts, the practical move is simple. AU-owned toy stores like Mr Toys Toyworld and Showbags carry compliance certifications and Australian product safety standards on every listing, and customer service is reachable inside business hours rather than via a global help-desk queue.

EOFY Week One: What’s Still Live and Worth Chasing

End of Financial Year 2026 deals are in full swing across every major Australian retailer, with the deepest discounts of the year now visible on big-ticket categories, Homes To Love updated its tracker on 5 June. The genuine standouts among AU-owned brands this week: Lounge Lovers running up to 50% off sitewide, MCM House at 20 to 50% off, and Sleeping Giant pushing 30 to 60% off storewide on mattresses. Pillow Talk has 40% off sitewide, Koala has up to 30% off across mattresses and sofa beds, and Linen House opens at up to 50% off from 15 June.

The veteran shopping tip worth repeating: discount depth does not deepen as 30 June approaches, but choice gets dramatically thinner. Popular stock such as mattresses, laptops and TVs sells out well before the final week. If you have a specific item in mind this is the weekend to lock it in rather than gamble on a deeper price on day 25 of a 30-day sale.

Last Call: Deals Closing This Week

A handful of strong AU-owned promotions wrap inside the next seven days, according to the Australian Women’s Weekly EOFY 2026 tracker updated 4 June. The Body Shop has 30% off all full-priced skincare ending today, 7 June, with selected exclusions. Lovehoney’s up-to-60% off wellness sale also closes tonight. MoveActive has up to 60% off selected activewear styles ending today. Papinelle’s end-of-season sale runs to 8 June at up to 60% off, City Chic has 30 to 50% off almost everything to 8 June, and MARAIS has an extra 20% off selected full-price and sale items closing 7 June.

Looking one week ahead, Linen House opens 15 June with up to 50% off, Yoto launches 20% off players and accessories from 16 June to 22 June, and Click Frenzy returns 18 June for the first time in over a year, the platform’s first major outing in over a year. That week-two cluster is when EOFY pivots from soft-launch to peak shopping volume, so if you can defer until then, the catalogue widens substantially.

Premium Daily Feature

Top 5 Deals of the Day

Five stores. Five categories. The deepest headline discounts surfaced from a sweep of every retailer on It’s On Sale, audited at dawn.

% discounts shown are indicative across each store’s sale range. Individual product savings vary.

Other Deals Worth a Look

  • Eckersleys: up to 70% off art, craft and stationery. Strong picks for winter-holiday craft packs and journaling supplies.
  • Grahams Jewellers: up to 70% off selected diamond, pearl and gold pieces. Family-owned Australian jeweller since 1907.
  • Veronika Maine: up to 70% off polished workwear and event dressing. Australian-designed, sized 6 to 16.
  • Decjuba: up to 70% off winter knits, denim and outerwear. Melbourne-founded, AU-owned, free delivery over $99.
  • Dusk: up to 60% off home fragrance, candles and diffusers. The reliable EOFY hostess-gift restock.

What to Watch Tomorrow

Two markers for the week ahead. Click Frenzy is expected to publish its participating-retailer list around 11 June, which will tell us how broad the free-to-list model has pulled smaller AU labels into the platform. And the Fair Work Commission’s 5.97% minimum wage increase from 1 July is now driving the deepest pre-EOFY clearance from small AU-owned retailers most exposed to payroll inflation, so the next three weeks are when their margin-led discounts hit hardest before the 1 July reset.

Tomorrow’s brief: a parent’s compliance checklist for spotting unsafe marketplace listings before they hit the cart, plus week-two EOFY winners as the Lounge Lovers and Linen House Mid-Year drops kick off.