From Click Frenzy to Cyber Monday: how online sales became an 'unofficial sport'

It isn't your imagination - there really are more online sales now, and they're changing Australia's retail calendar

Five stores email you on the same day. There's a big sale coming tomorrow. You make a note in your calendar, planning to get some Christmas shopping done. By the time you log off the next day, a little dazed, you have an extra set of bedsheets and a popcorn machine you had no intention of buying.

It was that pop-up offer that did you in - a little red ticker ran across the screen saying Hurry! Only three items left!" It was probably driven by a machine-learning algorithm.