Retail Survey June 09 - Key findings

Having surveyed over 200 retail companies I believe the following results give a great view of what's happening today in Australian retail. Many thanks to those who completed our most recent retail survey, without your contribution (the details of which always remain confidential) we wouldn't be able to produce the following data. The sample covers most sectors of the retail industry including grocery, department stores, discount variety, pharmacy, 22 apparel/fashion chains, homewares, electrical appliances, leisure and auto goods, duty free, fast food/coffee, music, books and jewellery.

I trust you'll find the following summary of the results as interesting as I did, and hope they may be of use to you and your business. Judging by the high level of response, I am happy to continue similar surveys on what's happening in retail if people find them worthwhile.

Cheers

Garry

Retail Survey June 09 - Key findings.

1. How did your May 09 sales compare with May 08? A staggering 88% of retailers showed an increase in May 09, and with more than two-thirds of these the increase was up more than 5%!

2. Have we hit rock bottom? 43% agreed that yes we had, 37% are unsure, while only 20% still think there is worse to come.

3. Are you starting to signs of recovery? While only 3% said they are seeing significant signs, it was encouraging to see that another 60% of responses answered yes, they are starting to see signs of recovery. 23% are unsure, while only 14% said they are not seeing any signs yet.

4. Staff numbers over the next 12 months? 50% of retailers believe there will be a slight increase, 3% a significant increase,  just over a third think their numbers will remain the same, while only 10% believe their numbers will decrease  (and all of these reported only slightly - no one feels it will be significant).

5. A positive to come out of the GFC is that 80% of retailers have found that the quantity of candidates on the market (compared to last year) is higher, in fact half of responses have found a significant increase in the number of candidates on the market.

6. However, in terms of what the quality of talent on the market is like (compared to last year), the results were very mixed. A third felt there was much better talent around, a third felt this was true but only in some areas, while the final third feel its just as hard to find good people.

7. Staff turnover ratio? Another benefit of the GFC is that for more than half of retailers their level of staff turnover has decreased since last year (a third of these said significantly). Of those remaining, 38% reported no change in the overall level.

8. What is your current level of staff turnover for store based staff? The average was 21%, the mean 15%, while the most frequent answer was 10% (by nearly a third of all those that answered). The range varied from 4% to 50%.

9. For head office staff, what is your level of turnover? As expected these answers were quite a bit lower. The average was 8%, the mean was 5%, while the most frequent answer was also 5% (over a half of all those that answered stated 5%). The range varied from 0% to 30%.

10. Our final question polarized retailers when we asked had they taken advantage of the last 6 months GFC to replace poor performing staff with those of a higher calibre. Just over 50% said No, while just under 50% said yes.