October 2020

Are retail sales better than last year?

It’s with much surprise that evidence from surveys completed recently have shown that many retailers have a very optimistic view of the year to come and many are actually currently performing better now than at the same time last year. In fact, over 75% of respondents are confident that their business wil survive the next 12 months at least. This is an interesting result considering the huge impact that Covid 19 has had on the economy and consumer buying behaviour.

This is according to Retail New Zealand, the industry association that oversees the sector.
It reported that in September, sales were actually up 19.6% over last year. Despite this large increase, the retail sales were still 2.7% down on sales between March and September last year. However, considering the crisis faced by New Zealanders and the world as a whole, it is a relatively good result.

Many retailers have benefited from a transformation of their business to an online model. This was a new way of doing business for many however it was a required quick learning curve for some in order to survive the brutal trading environment.

One big contributor to the survival of many businesses was the government wage subsidies which allowed businesses to keep their employees rather than lay them off.

One online business that performed exceptionally well was Onceit. Onceit is an online store with a wide variety of products available and with a Onceit coupon you can really save!