Retail market grows, slightly

The retail industry continues to inch towards recovery, with the Bureau of Statistics reporting a continuing trend of miniscule gains.

June 2010 returned an increased turnover of 0.3 per cent from May. It was already up 0.2 per cent compared to April, which also increased 0.2 per cent. Although there hasn’t been a gain of more than 0.6 per cent in the past 14 months, the statistics showed there hasn’t been a decline in that time.

The last quarter of overall loss for retail was in 2008, according to the Bureau. Despite the overall period of growth, conditions remain challenging for retailers.

According to various reports by Forrester and others, traditional bricks-and-mortar retailers are lagging in capitalising on online opportunities. However, Forrester senior analyst, Steven Noble, claimed the smaller online retailers are making great progress internationally.

This is based on the analyst firm’s Online Retailing in Australia 2010: Performance and Channels report.

“While Australia’s online retailers are generally small, they are growing very quickly, often selling internationally, and performing quite well against key metrics such as conversion rates,” Noble said in a statement.

“Nonetheless, they face many challenges, including haphazard fulfilment, skills shortages, and the scramble to keep up. As new merchants enter this space, the local online retail incumbents will have to focus on the basics of retail success while methodically building a superb multi-channel experience.”

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