How Australia’s retailers are gearing up for Christmas 2025

Australia supermarkets like Woolworths, Coles, Metcash (IGA) and Aldi go all-out to win shoppers at Christmas every year. This year, Christmas is landing in a still unsettled landscape after months of scrutiny of prices, margins and value messaging. The tactics have evolved so that it is not just price, but includes time-limited promotion, increased online slot capacity and loyalty-triggered value.

Woolworths Australia: owning the last mile

Woolworths will release an additional one million online order slots across Australia in the lead up to Christmas.

Value still features, but increasingly through the app. Everyday Rewards has leaned into mechanics like “Christmas Unwrapped,” a 12-day run of daily online offers (3–14 December 2025), engineered to keep shoppers checking in and adding incremental items.

Insight: In a season where shoppers fear out-of-stocks and missed deliveries, Woolworth’s reassurance of availability, fulfilment and value is powerful.

Coles: AUD1 produce and digital communication

Shoppers can pick up loose corn, loose lemons, bags of brown onions, and carrots for just AUD1 from 19-25 December both in-store and online.

Coles is also leaning into digital communication, including heavier use of its app and retail media platform to stimulate impulse purchases.  According to Coles, the final week before Christmas is expected to bring a further 17% week on week spike on its website. It is linking this engagement closely to spending and making a push for suppliers to step up advertising in this period.

Insight: Coles is fighting Christmas with irresistible value for fresh produce.  It is also pushing to monetise and amplify festive discovery via its owned digital channels.

Metcash (IGA): Seasonal product depth and festive range storytelling with locally relevant offers.

IGA’s beloved Community Co range provides a line up of unique and exclusive products and a range of gluten-free treats. The best part about the range is that shoppers can enjoy their desserts whilst feeling good knowing that proceeds from the range go right back into the local community. Every purchase of a Community Co product helps fund local community causes.

IGA also promotes Christmas recipes and festive content via its Christmas Hub, complete with weekly sales events, giveaways and exclusive offers to inbox subscribers. Some local stores highlight budget savers to drive traffic and create urgency.

Insight: IGA has weekly specials as well as store-level events that drive repeat store visits. Its private label products provides value and gives back to the local community, making them extra meaningful this festive season.

Aldi: scarcity, certainty and “Special Buys” theatre

Aldi’s partnership with Doordash is providing shoppers with more ways to get groceries this year, however it wins Christmas by being the simplest value story with high-energy limited-time theatre.

Aldi’s Christmas messaging reinforces the steady “new ranges arriving each week” to keep footfall high without relying on deep discounts.

Insight: Aldi is using urgency and simplicity to highlight its Christmas range: limited-time seasonal lines that feel discoverable, alongside the everyday value.