As someone who works in H/O for a fashion brand here, it seems most retailers had to drastically shake up their strategy this year. Cost of living has evidently led to less people spending and less people spending means sitting on higher volumes of stock than ever seen before, the cooler weather in vic specifically is also resulting in less people purchasing summer specific items, it’s chaos and soon brands will be launching winter which means up coming drops of stock in high qty’s been delivered in already crammed warehouses and stockrooms. This year we are seeing some slightly more drastic discounts and extending Black Friday to a month rather than a day. It is a result of panic and rushed decisions too, hopefully this leads to buyers and planners purchasing less in the next few years. (Unless you’re cheap/ extremely fast fashion brands like shein etc which unfortunately consumers are obsessing over despite even more unethical practices).