CONSUMER spending succeeded in the face of the emergence of the Omicron variant over January, outshining results from 2021 and 2020.
According to the latest figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, Australian retail sales were up 6.4% on the same month in 2021 and up 17.4% on January 2020 prior to the onset of the COVID-19 global pandemic.
“Retailers have been resilient throughout the pandemic, and despite all the disruption from Omicron, it’s pleasing to see an increase in sales given the difficult trading conditions for many businesses in January,” said Paul Zahra, CEO of the Australian Retailers Association.
Western Australia was the leader over the month, with an 8.3% boost to January 2021 levels, while Victoria trailed closely behind at 8.2% and Queensland followed with 5.8%.
“Whilst businesses were battling ongoing supply chain issues and staff shortages due to the rising Omicron cases, it had little impact on consumer spending and the willingness of people to get out and shop,” said Zahra.
NSW was next in line with a 5.6% increase for the year, followed by South Australia with 4.7%, Tasmania with 3.6%, ACT with 1.7% and NT with 0.2%.
Zahra noted that CBD retailers should begin to feel some relief with Sydney and Melbourne both seeing work from home recommendations and indoor mask mandates lifted.
“People are now heading back to their offices in our two largest cities, which will significantly improve foot traffic and local businesses will receive a natural uptick in trade as a result,” added Zahra.
Compared to January 2020, WA saw a 28.3% increase, NT 19.5%, Queensland 18.6%, ACT 18.3%, VIC 16.4%, NSW 15.5%, SA 14.6% and Tasmania 13.4%.
Conversely, recent floods across South East Queensland and parts of Northern NSW have only added to challenges facing people, retailers and businesses.
“It’s important government support payments flow through to these businesses as quickly as possible so they can begin the clean-up effort as soon as they can and start to rebuild,” said Zahra.
As far a retail categories are concerned, with a drop of 3.6% over January, department stores were the only category to report a decline on the previous year’s levels.
While clothing, footwear and personal accessories kept on track for recovery, with a 7% lift, with cafes, restaurants and takeaway food following with a 6.2% increase.
Household goods followed with 5.9%, food retailing with 4.5%, while ‘other retailing’ reported a 15.7% increase.
