SHOPAHOLICS will enjoy the festive season this year with retail trading hours set to be extended again to provide greater flexibility.

Perth business owners will be able to open their stores at 7am on weekdays and Saturdays, and 8am on Sundays during the Christmas shopping period.

The extended trading hours from December 5 to January 1 will also allow shops to remain open until 6pm on weekends.

Commerce Minister Michael Mischin said for the first time shops would also have the option to open from 8am to 6pm on the Queen’s Birthday public holiday on September 28.

Mr Mischin said the 59 extra trading hours would provide greater freedom for large and small businesses to offer services to their customers.

“It provides the opportunity for them to open whenever they feel they can provide those services and when it will be of benefit to them,” he added.

“They can cater to the demands of their customers who may want to shop earlier or later in the day.

“It may even open up the opportunities for further jobs at a casual or part time nature.

“It keeps the economy turning over, but importantly it provides a service for the people.”

Mr Mischin said he had received and considered a variety of submissions on the issue, but in the end decided to stick with last year’s extend shopping hours plan.

“Some were positive, some complained, some wanted greater hours than what we are contemplating, some wanted significantly less and some wanted a different arrangement than ours,” he said at Karrinyup Shopping Centre on Sunday.

“All of those had to be balanced, in the end I decided we would do what we did last year and see how that runs and it may set the standard for the future.”

If the extended hours move proves to be unpopular or problems arise, Mr Mischin said he would reconsider the changes before the end of next year.

Another area of concern for Mr Mischin was the “anomalies” in trading areas across regional areas of the State.

“One of the things that needs to be addressed over time is the difference between trading in regional areas where each local government can judge to a large degree when its shops will be open,” Mr Mischin said.

“You may end up with a patchwork of two or three local government areas on some long routes and that can’t be encouraging for tourists who are moving around and think I’ll wait till the next town in order to get X because the shops were open in the last town and then they find out that they are not (open), because of some anomaly.”

Mr Mischin said in some regional areas trading hours were far more liberal than they are in the metropolitan area and in other instances far more restrictive.

“I would hope there would be some ironing out and levelling out of the differences between those and it is an area I will look at in due course,” he said.

“I would hope to encourage local government authorities through their association to try and address it themselves and see if they can come up with something sensible that suits them.

“I don’t want to step in if I don’t have to.”

Premier Colin Barnett has pledged to extend Sunday trading hours by allowing stores to open at 9am if the Liberals are elected for a third term in 2017.