Are consumers more comfortable spending?

The retail sector continued to climb in June 2010, with total retail spend across all the categories up 4.6% on June last year.

The past week has seen conflicting media reports in terms of the general consumer spending climate for retailers, but Datamine’s Retailwatch puts it all into perspective.

Positive growth last month mirrors the findings from a study carried out during June by UMR Research. They found that the Consumer Comfort Index (CCI) had risen, meaning consumers are feeling more comfortable about the economy and their personal finances than they were a few months earlier.

Only three categories have seen decreases in spend in June 2010, compared to June 2009. The largest of these was the Travel & Accommodation category, however this was still only a moderate decline of 1.7% on June 2009 spend.

This finding echoes the recent results from the Visa Debit Savvy Shopper survey, which suggests that Kiwi’s are still being discerning when it comes to spending their money. It is logical that this category is where we would see hints of this notion, due to the ‘luxury’ nature of the spend.

However, whether you feel like you are spending more, or being more careful, the numbers don’t lie and the retail sector is definitely still seeing a recovery in most categories.

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