The National Retail Association (NRA) predicts Australians will spend up to $2.8 billion at Boxing Day sales — nearly 5 per cent up from last year.
Early on Monday morning hundreds of people queued in the dark in Sydney's CBD to be the first shoppers to take part in sales.
According to the NRA, New South Wales shoppers were expected to spend the most across the day, handing over around $741 million.
Chief executive Dominique Lamb said Boxing Day remained the biggest day for retailers across the country.
"Retail absolutely holds Boxing Day as the standout day of the year and it looks like this year it's going to be an increase of 4.2 per cent across the nation on spending," she said.
But Ms Lamb said customers should not fear the famous Boxing Day crowds.
"Certainly hundreds of thousands of people turn out to Boxing Day sales, but it's a lot of fun, the atmosphere is quite electric," she said.
"Most of the time people are quite polite and friendly and certainly I think it's just about being able to get those bargains you can't get any other day of the year."
The NRA's Russell Zimmerman said women's and men's apparel would be most popular this year.
"Women's shoes, women's dresses and intimate apparel, handbags and wallets are always very big," he said.
"Then to move to men, we will see quite a large amount of business shirts, suits, jackets and trousers."
The NRA is expecting that around $17.2 billion will be spent from Boxing Day to January 15 — an increase of $2.9 billion on last year's figures.
Mr Zimmerman said he believed that consumer confidence remained despite Australian wage growth being at a record low.
"I think you have to look at interest rates that are very, very low," he said.
"Consumer confidence, I believe, is still there and we know that clothing and footwear is sitting at about 4.5 to and 5 per cent, and again that's discretionary spending so that's going very, very well.
"Unemployment is fairly low, so that is another good sign."
NSW Government to review across the state trading
It is the second year that shops in suburban areas around New South Wales have been allowed to open on Boxing Day, after the lifting of restrictions that only allowed select stores to trade in Sydney.
The NSW Treasurer Gladys Berejiklian said all indicators showed that staff and shops had not been forced to open this year.
"We've got penalties in place for employers who force people to work. We also have penalties in place if smaller shops are forced to open their doors," she said.
"It's not about that, it's about making sure we have consistent retail trade across the state."
The Treasurer said a review of Boxing Day trading would be held early next year, which was promised as part of the initial change in trading hours.
She said there had been very few complaints about workers being forced to work and was confident Boxing Day trading would remain.
"Nobody should tell people what to do on Boxing Day; it's a choice that individuals and families have," she said.
"We just want to make it equally fair for everybody across the state if they choose to shop, if they choose to work."
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