This week, the ARA, in collaboration with our principal partner, American Express, released our second Small Retail Index – highlighting how SMB retailers are performing in the current economic landscape.
The research revealed most small to medium-size retailers (55%) remain uncertain or concerned about their financial future as a consumer spending slowdown continues to impact the industry. You can view the media release here.
The release of the Index was accompanied by a Roundtable event in Sydney, which featured representatives from the industry, media and government. Stay tuned for highlights from that discussion in coming weeks.
We’re proud of our collaborative work with American Express in this area.
Today, we released our spending projections for Black Friday, in partnership with Roy Morgan.
Shoppers are tipped to spend $6.36 billion across the four-day Black Friday/Cyber Monday weekend (Nov 24 – 27) up 3.0% on last year.
Despite an expected softening in the broader pre-Christmas spending period, the popularity of Black Friday is set to continue, giving a much-needed boost to the holiday shopping season. You can read about it here.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics monthly retail trade data on Monday revealed sales increased 2.0% year-on-year in September driven mostly by food related categories.
Several discretionary categories recovered from decline on the previous month, mostly driven by more promotional discounting.
However, this does give retailers a cautious bit of optimism heading into these vital trading months.
Food and takeaway again led spending growth, and this is consistent with what we’ve seen all year – shoppers are prioritising essentials in a cost-of-living crisis.
The Reserve Bank of Australia’s monetary decision on Melbourne Cup Day will be pivotal to the success of retailers over Christmas – and we urge the RBA to hold interest rates considering this. You can read more, here.
Whilst there are talks that the Government have made some concessions on casual employees in the Industrial Relations Bill, we are yet to see any detail and there remains significant unanswered questions regarding what is actually being proposed by the government.
The changes to casual employment would still make it harder for businesses to engage casuals by introducing a complex and unwarranted new test. In particular, employers would still be deprived of any real rights to refuse requests of casual conversion, even where they have reasonable business grounds to do so. The ARA continues to advocate for closer industry consultation around these issues.
