In the last few years, Australia has attracted many international retail players, and growth in the market has remained steadily upwards. According to a recent market report by Deloitte – Global Powers of Retailing, Australian retailers can expect further competition from global players this year. The report claims that as of now, 38 Top 250 global retailers are already operating in Australia and in 2017, new players outside of the Top 250 list also made into the Australian market.“ Ongoing population growth, a strong tourism market and improving wages, are all set to ensure that the overall retail market continues to grow in 2018,” says David White, National Leader of Deloitte’ s Retail, Wholesale & Distribution Group. Australia’ s apparel and footwear industry continued to post positive retail value growth in 2017, albeit at a lower rate than that posted in 2016. Sportswear saw the strongest growth, driven by the athleisure trend, especially in womenswear, driving growth across several categories, such as women’ s leggings, sportsinspired footwear, hosiery, and women’ s underwear. What is obvious is that retail growth is now happening outside of the US and Europe. Retailers who were growing happily in these traditional strongholds are now looking at fresh markets. Zara, H & M, Topshop and GAP have been flooding into Australia to challenge local retailers and cash in on what they regard as a strong Australian economy and stable governance.
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ESSENTIALS
No doubt, the year gone by was a determining year for Australian retail, as two major retail movements heated up activities in the market. On one hand, French-owned retailer Décathlon opened its first bricks-andmortar store in Australia in 2017 and on the other hand, the long-anticipated arrival of Amazon was realised.
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Every retailer wants a piece of the growing Australia retail landscape, threatening local players with their global exposure and new ways of providing customers with something unique. And this is the biggest challenge that local retailers are facing. Retail expert Brian Walker says that the middle-ground of Australian retail is quickly hollowing out and if brands aren’ t careful, they could be caught in-between.“ 2018 will be less about store size and product price and more about remarkable experiences – expect data technologies to drive this,” he says. The threat is highest in the fashiondriven womenswear category.
ZARA store in Sydney
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The current year has already claimed its first victim with plussize fashion label Maggie T falling into administration and footwear brand Diana Ferrari, part of Munro Footwear Group, consolidating, having recently announced the closure of its national physical network. Deloitte’ s Australian retail lead David White expects brand consolidations to remain on the minds of executives in 2018, following a swathe of administrations and brand mergers in 2017.“ We’ re going to see more consolidations; Christmas will have to be a pain point for a few retailers,” White says and further adds,“ There will be restructuring within multi- |