Shopping pace was busy but not packed through central Ballarat, including Myer and Target by lunchtime.

Ballarat shopper Jenny Ferguson, who was out with family, said it was fun to have a walk up and down Sturt Street to see what they might find.

Ms Ferguson hit up popular Boxing Day destination stores JB Hi-Fi, Myer and Harris Scarfe first.

"We're just making the most of sales," Ms Ferguson said. "We did the big stores and have moved on to all the local shops now."

Ms Ferguson said long queues in Harris Scarfe were not worth the wait for bargains. Harris Scarfe's Ballarat store future remains in limbo after the retail chain entered voluntary administration. The Australian Financial Review last week revealed plans for Harris Scarfe to shed 40 per cent of stores nationwide.

Australian shoppers are tipped to have spent $2.62 billion on December 26. National Retail Association's Russell Zimmerman said pre-Christmas sales, like Black Friday, and online sales starting late on Christmas Eve could impact in-store numbers on Boxing Day.

"But as I said earlier, people love the atmosphere of Boxing Day and that may then mean that people still come out and shop," Mr Zimmerman said.

Boxing Day is also forecast to become the busiest day on the National Broadband Network system. Last Boxing Day, NBN registered an average amount of data consumed per household of 11.8GB, which meant a 69 per cent increase on the daily average of 6.98GB per household during 2018.

Meanwhile, popular gelato shop Il Piccolo has once again offered some flavour to suit the occasion with dragonfruit-based Unleash the Dragon for those wrestling with sales.

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