Click Frenzy kicks off tonight … Aussie shoppers choose Netflix over groceries … Freelancer’s Matt Barrie issues warning on Australia’s economy

Australia’s answer to Black Friday flash sales, Click Frenzy, kicks off at 7:00pm tonight, marking its fifth year in operation.

The sale will feature offers from both traditional bricks-and-mortar retailers like Flight Centre and Myer, as well as online operators like ASOS, eBay and MyDeal.

The online sale got off to a famously shaky start in 2012, when demand for offers crashed the website and left many retailers disappointed with the result.

Years on, the operation has formed a partnership with Australia Post and post-pay service Afterpay, and customers have been promised a seamless experience on the night.

Australians happy with cut-price groceries if they can pay for other luxuries

Deloitte Access Economics research commissioned by discount supermarket Aldi suggests Australian shoppers are okay with private label grocery products if it means they can spend more on services like Netflix.

The survey looked at historical spending as well as household priorities in 2017, finding that one in three households are minimising grocery bills by buying less or buying no-name brands.

There are also suggestions that groceries are lagging behind food delivery and entertainment as spending priorities: at the same time as households are reporting buying less at the supermarket, food delivery expenditure has grown by 30% over the past year alone, the report suggests.

When it comes to other expenses like Netflix or Spotify, 12% of customers said they would buy less groceries before cancelling their subscriptions, while 20% of Deloitte’s survey respondents said they’d prefer to spend less on holidays and clothing before cutting out their streaming services.

Freelancer’s Matt Barrie delivers warning on future

Freelancer founder Matt Barrie has penned a comprehensive analysis of Australia’s economic future of Medium, warning that without a national rethink on skills and training, the country is set for challenging times.

In an analysis penned with digital transformations expert Craig Tindale, Barrie argues the nation’s economy has secured a record number of quarters of continuous economic growth largely due to luck and the abundance of natural resources.

He argues Australia is incredibly reliant on exports to China, while the property boom is scheduled for an end date in the near future.

The way politicians and state governments view education and preparing future talent to work in the technology space is incredibly important, Barrie argues, highlighting that Australia comes in at number 77 on Harvard’s Economic Complexity index, which tracks how many different commodities a country can produce, and how unique those skills are across the world.

Read the full post here.

Never miss a story: sign up to SmartCompany’s free daily newsletter and find our best stories on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram.