It was wonderful to see so many from our retail community participate in the ARA International Women’s Day lunch event in Melbourne last week, culminating in the announcement of the ARA CEW Women Leaders in Retail Scholarship, now in its third year.
Nominations are now open to ambitious female retail executives looking to accelerate their professional development. Visit our website to learn more about the scholarship, including eligibility, or to nominate an individual.
With Easter just weeks away, the ARA in collaboration with Roy Morgan have released projections for spending over the long weekend.
Despite cost-of-living pressures, Australian families will splash out on Easter treats this year, tipped to spend $2.05 billion on hot cross buns, easter eggs or other special food (up 23.5%) – approximately $400 million more than in 2023.
Roughly one million more people will be buying Easter treats this year, which coincides with Australia’s population growth of 2.4 per cent over past year.
Meanwhile, more than a third of Australians are set to pick up the tools and undertake DIY projects over the Easter break, tipped to spend $6.3 billion on home improvements and renovations.
As we build towards the Federal budget in May, the Government this week announced it will eliminate around 500 import tariffs. Whilst the reductions will provide only modest relief for retailers, we acknowledged the move as a step in the right direction to reduce unnecessary red-tape and improve costs for business and consumers.
We continue to advocate for much broader business support in the pending budget, which you can view in our submission.
Finally, some worrying signs for the economy with GDP growth slowing to just 0.2% in the December quarter, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, with productivity contracting 3.7% in 2022-23.
It appears Australia’s economic challenges will continue for a while yet.
