Many stores started their sales online before the shop doors opened, with some even starting on Christmas Day, and for those who did turn up to the shops early, it was a relaxed affair, with no mad rushes or scrambling for bargains.

At the Canberra Centre, department stores Myer and David Jones opened their doors at 7am, but early on, the biggest crowds could be found waiting for coffees and queuing up at handmade cosmetics store Lush.

Its sale included 50 per cent off most of the store, and Hugh Kirk and Laura Jennings, who are from Sydney and visiting family in Canberra, arrived at 7.30am to join the line before doors opened at 8am.

"I think we've done it the past three years or so - we wake up early, come to Lush, and then we should be pretty much done by 8.30 and out of the craziness," Mr Kirk said.

The duo said they took advantage of the savings and stocked up for next year, on, "bath bombs, shower gels, and the works".

"We also got a few late Christmas presents for Christmas parties in the next couple of weeks, and then just big boxes of stuff for us," Mr Kirk said.

Sue Nelms arrived at the Canberra Centre at 6.50am with her two daughters and three granddaughters, who she said had gone along, "for the fun of it".

"We got here early, and it was relatively quite actually," she said.

"My youngest granddaughter hasn't been before to the Boxing Day sales - she's 11. So she just wanted to come for the experience."

Most stores were offering 20 to 50 per cent off stock, and while her family had picked up quite a few bargains, Ms Nelms said she didn't think prices "are very much different to what they were in the sales before Christmas".

The bulk of shoppers opted to turn up later, with crowds increasing through the mid-morning and into the lunchtime period.

Westfield Belconnen centre manager Chad Daly said they also had a quieter start when stores opened at 8am, but customer numbers were on track to top 2016.

"There were not as many customers around at 8 o'clock as we would have thought initially but really the busy time picked up from about 10, that's when we started to see a lot of people in a lot of stores," Mr Daly said.

"It's been really busy - trade's very strong. I think we're still going to see record numbers up on last year, we're certainly seeing traffic heading in that direction during the day."

Mr Daly said they expected customer numbers in the tens of thousands at both Westfield Belconnen and Westfield Woden on Boxing Day.