Australia’s retailers can expect a bullish 2017 on the back of positive sales growth late last year.
Spending on restaurants, holidays and entertainment is expected to dramatically jump by up to 10 per cent in 2017, as consumers embrace a new era of “personalised hospitality,” independent eftpos provider, Tyro, predicts.
Tyro CEO Gerd Schenkel said pre-Christmas hospitality sales results showed that Australian consumers were increasingly turning to small- and medium-sized venues with personality and charm, and this was expected to continue into 2017.
“In December alone, Australia’s 62,000 SME hospitality businesses, employing up to 200 staff each, saw sales increase a staggering 10 per cent to $8 billion,” Schenkel said. “Tyro Payments expects this trend to continue in the second half of the 2017 financial year, as Australians embrace the character and personal touch that small- and-medium sized hotels and restaurants provide. Based upon the detailed sales results of thousands of our customers, we estimate SME sized hospitality sales will reach $80 billion this financial year, compared to only $24 billion for larger hospitality businesses.”
“It seems David is beating Goliath when it comes to the hearts and minds of Aussie consumers, as personalised hospitality beats the often homogenous and soulless experience of some large chains,” Schenkel added.
Likewise, Australia’s 78,000 small- and medium-sized retailers can also expect a bullish 2017 with December sales climbing three per cent compared to the same time the previous year.
“Tyro estimates small- and medium-sized retailers will reach about $215 billion in sales this financial year, compared with $200 billion for the large retailing chains,” Schenkel said. “In December alone, small- and medium-sized retailers processed about $23.5 billion in sales, a three per cent increase on the same period the previous year.
“This was a cracking finish to 2016, and we expect more of the same over the coming six months to the end of the financial year. ”The sales figures show that smaller retailers are defying the drift to international online sales, and continuing to provide a viable alternative for discerning Australian shoppers. “In part, this is because smaller retailers are embracing online sales themselves, opening up new markets for their products.”
Australia’s 1 million SMEs are critical to Australian prosperity, as they provide eight million of the country’s 12 million jobs, and contribute more than $343 billion to the economy annually.
“We are very pleased to see the SME sector doing well,” Schenkel said. “In 2016, 54 per cent of our SME customers were able to grow their turnover, and they did so by an average of 15 per cent per annum. This is in contrast to the total economy where typically only about one third of all businesses manage to grow their income at all.”
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