It feels as though the catalogues have turned before the weather. This edition we’re reading the season in the promotional data; chocolate down to a dollar, the wellness aisle bracing for cold-and-flu season and an interesting drinks disparity across Coles & Woolworths.
1. Vitamin season begins
With winter approaching, the wellness aisle made an appearance. Blackmores and Swisse combined for 55 promotional slots in May – the most they have ever recorded. The most telling deal: Blackmores Omega Triple Super Strength fish oil ran at $42.50, down from $85.00, at both retailers during the month.
However, if you want to know the real signal that Winter is coming, look no further
than Soup and medicinal that has grown 5-11-fold from March catalogue volume:
2. Cadbury steals the show with deepest discounts
Who knew you could still buy anything for $1 in this economy?
Cadbury was May’s most-promoted brand by a clear margin – 43 catalogue
appearances across the two majors, and it also delivered the deepest genuine
discount of the month.
Woolworths dropped Cadbury Medium Bars from $3 to
$1 – a 67% cut and the sharpest price on any branded line in May.Coles
answered the same week at $1.25 (58% off), with its Fight MND charity bar at the
same price point. Further up the price ladder the two matched each other exactly on Cadbury Roses at $9, down from $20.
Perhaps the chocolate companies are finally feeling the impact of the 60% reduction in the price of Cocoa from the dizzying highs of May 2025
3. Coles doubles Woolworths on drinks
Most of the time, major catalogues are a mirror image. This bucks the trend.
Category by category, Coles & WW track closely – food within 4% (537 vs 514 promotions), Health& Beauty separated by a single deal (186 vs 185).
The glaring exception is the drinks aisle: Coles ran 186 beverage promotions in May vs 94 in Woolworths – a 2-1 gap that dwarfs every other category split:
Interestingly, the majority of brands increased, however Pepsi and Powerade had a distinctly Coles focus in May:
Stay across our insights
At CROSSMARK, we work with a broad mix of retail data, field intelligence, and category experience across the business. That gives us a practical view of what is happening in-store, online, across catalogues and at the point of decision, helping us shape better strategies and deliver stronger outcomes for our clients.
This article is part of an insights series where we’ll be sharing different reads on channels, categories, and shopper behaviour throughout the year. If you’d like these sent straight to your inbox, you can sign up to the CROSSMARK newsletter. And if anything here sparks a thought, challenge or opportunity for your brand, please feel free to reach out.
