embrace the realities of retail spending 0.7% – 0.8% – 0.3% are the rates of growth in consumer spending in Australia over each of the quarters up until December 2016. The annual growth rate in retail spending to January 2017 was 3%, compared to an annual growth rate of 3.8% to January 2016. We all […]

embrace the realities of retail spending 0.7% – 0.8% – 0.3% are the rates of growth in consumer spending in Australia over each of the quarters up until December 2016. The annual growth rate in retail spending to January 2017 was 3%, compared to an annual growth rate of 3.8% to January 2016. We all know that consumer spending like consumer confidence in Australia is lower than business would like. We also know that retail spending is lower than is needed to sustain the number of shops we have today. When Amazon enters Australia in earnest in 2017/18, the pressure on retailing will become even more intense – given that in Australia, online retailing is just 7.5% of total retail spending but is likely to grow (in my estimation) to around 16% (as it is in the USA and the UK) in 4 or 5 years. Bricks and mortar retail…