The end of financial year brought in much more incentive to take to the stores this year – and it was evident within the latest Australian Retail Index numbers for June. Half-yearly clearances and stocktake sales are a common mid-year tactic and appear to have been particularly impactful.

Industry wide sales increased 8 per cent month-over-month from May and almost 15 per cent compared with June last year.

The General Retail sector lead the way at 15 per cent followed closely by Sporting Goods at 13 per cent. Large ticketed items coupled with big discounts in the Furniture vertical led to a huge comeback with over 21 per cent growth on May and 4 per cent year over year.

Changing trends in payment methods

Along with new “Buy Now, Pay Later” services like After Pay, credit card purchases also increased 5 per cent from the same period last year as less people opted for cash. Laybys also increased by over 11 per cent as shoppers and retailers looked ahead to the Christmas season, buying while prices were low.

Focus must now shift to driving record Christmas season sales

With strong growth recorded in June thanks to EOFY sales, retailers need to now turn their attention to how they are going to best position themselves for the months leading up to Christmas season.

Many retailers are already active with offering Christmas gift laybys through in-store and online communications. And to stand out in an increasingly crowded and demanding global marketplace, retailers need to be already starting to execute on a clear marketing, sales, service, inventory and fulfilment strategy.

But it is not just about having the right strategy, you also need the right systems to enable it.

Cloud technologies allow retailers to be much more efficient than ever before.

By having their online and instore inventory management platforms integrated in the cloud, they have live visibility of their sales, customers, inventory and supply chains – which allows them to get just the right products into the right stores at the right time with minimal impact on their cashflow.

Written by Aaron Blackman CEO of Retail Express. Retail data drawn from the AustralianRetailIndex.com.au

Access exclusive analysis, locked news and reports with Inside Retail Weekly. Subscribe today and get our premium print publication delivered to your door every week.