Problematic Environment for Retailers

Problematic Environment for Retailers - Retail NZ Half Year Report Card

Retail NZ has published a report card highlighting problematic issues for the retail sector, including industrial relations, consumer spending, regulation and crime.

"The retail sector is a very substantial part of the economy, but it is under substantial and sustained pressure," Retail NZ's Chief Executive, Scott Fisher said today. "42 per cent of retailers reported in a recent survey that the failed to hit their sales targets, part of an ongoing trend of underperformance across the sector.

"Overall, the environment for retail businesses is challenging," said Mr Fisher. "Problematic areas include industrial relations, where new legislation is likely to create an increasingly challenging environment for businesses; consumer spending, which is almost static as household budgets are increasingly squeezed; and regulation of shop trading hours on religious holidays which is arbitrary, unfair, and simply inefficient.

"Crime is a real issue across the sector, and getting worse. Tragically, during the first half of the year, a security guard working at a retail premises was killed. There needs to be a Government social change programme to encourage respect for people, property and the law; and the Government needs to act to ensure that there are real consequences for petty offenders in order to break the cycle of crime.

"On a brighter note, Retail NZ is pleased to see that the Government is moving to level the playing field by making foreign websites register for GST when selling to New Zealanders. There have also been positive movements in relation to payments with improved transparency and reduced interchange fees for some transactions - although we have yet to see the impact of this flow through into reduced merchant fees for retailers."

A copy of the Retail NZ Half Year Report Card is attached.

http://img.scoop.co.nz/media/pdfs/1807/RetailNZ2018PaymentsSurveyReport.pdf

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