Retailwatch: April 2010

Welcome to Retailwatch for April 2010.

As we start a new financial year, we’re still seeing that general recovery vibe coming through in the report for April 2010. Overall, total retail spend for the month is up 1.1% on April 2009. Still only a small percentage increase, but it marks the second consecutive month of positive numbers and the only others we’ve seen in the last year. Business and consumer confidence are generally higher, but it appears we are still seeing cautious spend patterns emerging.

Interesting to note, there were some regional differences coming through in the numbers… The Otago, Canterbury and Wellington regions, in that order, have seen the biggest improvement in total retail spend figures since last year. Auckland’s total retail spend figures are relatively flat (only up 0.5% on last year) and the rural provinces, ie: Northland and the West Coast, have experienced minor decreases.

As far as the categories go, the majority have seen year on year increases as compared to April last year, although not many of the increases were significant, with many below 1%. The largest increase in spend was seen in the Fuel/Service Stations category, which is up 6.2% on April last year. An analysis of petrol price changes only accounts for about half of this difference. Fuel prices have risen 13.8% over this period, suggesting that consumers are not filling up quite as much at the pump.

The Home & Building Supplies category continues its recovery, up 2.2% in April 2010 compared to April 2009. Last month was the first time in over a year that this category experienced a year on year increase, following mostly double digit decreases, so the last couple of months have marked a vast improvement for the sector.

Of the categories that were down in spend from April 2009, only minor decreases were experienced. For April, the Café/Restaurants/Bars category is faring much the same as it was in March, down 1.0% year on year. This does mark a continued recovery though, as significant decreases were seen in previous months.

Retailwatch can be used to monitor trends in specific categories that are relevant to you while also building a broader picture of the overall retail environment.

The team at Datamine can also help you explore further the impacts of retail industry trends on your business. If you have any questions or would like further information that would help support your business decision making needs, please don’t hesitate to call us.

Datamine offers a range of retail tools, including merchant specific market share reporting, catalogue optimisation, media return on investment, campaign analysis, customer profiling, churn and cross sell models, data cleaning and management and consulting.

To view a full copy of the report: click here