Australian department store giant Myer has pointed fingers at low consumer confidence when explaining its declining sales performance to investors.
The retailer told the ASX of its preliminary full-year fiscal performance; one that painted a picture of a troubled latter half of the year with monthly sales figures more than 5 per cent down on the year prior. These months contributed to more than $4 billion in total sales, up 0.3 per cent on a like-for-like basis.
“The second half of FY26 has been characterised by a volatile and significantly more challenging macroeconomic and retail environment than 1H26 or FY25,” said Myer’s executive chair Olivia Wirth.
Despite a “stronger” month of May, Wirth added that a “material downturn in consumer sentiment” reared its head in both June and July, leading to declining discretionary spending. Wirth’s analysis of the Australian consumer comes shortly after Roy Morgan released research that found both consumer and business confidence to be at the lowest level since the pandemic.
The group’s primary sales channel, retail, grew by 0.7 per cent, while Myer Apparel Brands’ sales fell by 1.3 per cent. Operating gross profit is estimated to have fallen by as much as 2.5 per cent on a like-for-like basis.
“We continued to strengthen the business, achieving record loyalty engagement and tag rates, expanding our brand and product offering, launching our retail media platform, progressing our store network optimisation program, implementing a new marketplace platform and delivering value creation benefits and further integration synergies,” Wirth said.
Myer said that it attempted to increase demand through promotional activity which, at the present moment, “has not been sufficient to offset weak underlying consumer spending”.
Wirth added: “While we remain cautious on the near-term consumer outlook, we are confident that the strategic actions we are taking today are strengthening the group’s competitive position, resilience and supporting the creation of long-term shareholder value.”
