Australian retailers record 'lukewarm' Christmas period, Myer bucks trend

By

Benjamin Fitzgerald

Published
Jan 10, 2017

Australian retailers said the recently ended Christmas 2016 period was lacklustre compared to the gains in 2015, despite a few retailers such as Myer bucking the revenue trend.

According to Citi, a group of research analysts who spoke to Australia-listed retail companies to gauge the success or otherwise of Christmas sales, retailers said spoke they were “lukewarm” about Christmas trading.

“There is no alarm about weak sales trends, nor is discounting particularly steep, but the sales growth has been modest for most,” the analysts said in a note.

“Given the very successful Christmas in 2015, it was always going to be difficult to deliver high levels of growth. Our strongest feedback is on Myer and JB Hi-Fi, while Coles was weak and so were women’s apparel and footwear retailers," Citi said.

“Based on our conversations with suppliers and industry contacts, Myer did well," it added.

The department store won over shoppers with the return of its Giftorium, a one-stop shop for gifts, wrapping and cheer that was also a hit in 2015 — when some 2.2 million presents were sold.

Furthermore, most Australian retailers experienced a surge in online sales at the expense of store sales, said Citi.

“Retail feedback for Christmas 2016 is a contrast to the prior year with most retailers we spoke to reporting a weak start to December, a good two weeks leading into Christmas day and solid Boxing Day sales,” said analysts.

Post-Christmas, the Australian Retailers Association (ARA) said Boxing Day proved to be successful with sales of around $2.3 billion as forecast.

Research by ARA and Roy Morgan expects consumer spending to reach $17.2 billion from December 26 to January 15.