Is the weakness in the retail sector due to the fact there are too many retailers?

While we potentially have an oversupply of retailers in Australia, the fact is consumers are spending less.

Currently everyone is talking about “saving is the new spending” as household savings are now estimated to be 10% of household disposable incomes, a level not seen for 20 years.

As you are unlikely to be able to change this mindset, driven by uncertainty in the market, it would be more productive to find ways to tap into the money that is being spent by consumers.

Not knowing what your business is, I can only give you some broad suggestions.

Ensure that all your resources (time and money) is spent driving sales.

Find ways to use other people’s money to drive awareness of your products.

Identify companies who are targeting the same consumer and form joint partnerships and/or promotions to communicate to the consumer and both companies benefit from a reduced marketing and communications cost.

Certainly explore using digital as, while there may be an initial capital outlay, long-term it is the way to go and can be very low cost for a high return.

Online purchasing will continue to grow and is here to stay.