Retailers hope for sales boost

Elise Goodge

Wanganui retailers will be hoping business picks up as they move into the critical trading phase of their year.

Latest figures from Paymark, the organisation that tracks at least three-quarters of the country's electronic transactions, show that last month the Wanganui region experienced slow growth both in terms of volume and value of those retail transactions.

The number of transactions lifted 3 per cent last month compared to the September trading period last year, with 910,000 transactions as opposed to 880,000 in 2012. And in dollar terms those electronic deals were worth $38.3 million last month compared to $37.6 million 12 months ago - an increase of just under 2 per cent.

Nationally, spending was up 5.3 per cent from September 2012 to September 2013.

Elise Goodge, Mainstreet Wanganui marketing and administration manager, told the Chronicle that retailing in the city had struggled through a typically slow period of winter trading.

"Normally August is the lowest trading month of the year for city shops but from September onward we expect to see things improve on the back of school holidays and tourism numbers starting to rise."

However, Ms Goodge said retailers had noted a dramatic drop in spending when the district council's rates demands went out.

"For those people who pay their rates all at once then, it was particularly tough because the rates had increased.

There's been a fair bit of belt-tightening since then," she said.

"Normally in Wanganui retailers generate anywhere from 20-50 per cent of their annual income during this trading period, so it's a very important period for them.

"This is historically a huge trading time for them, with most using this period to provide a buffer for the slow times during the rest of the year. Some retailers haven't managed to make that extra to provide that buffer they were anticipating."

Ms Goodge said the problem had been compounded by the last drought with its trickle-down impact from the rural community, and a number of job losses around the city and district.

"The positive is that we haven't gone into the negative growth we experienced a couple of years ago," she said.

Mainstreet continued to do its bit to boost retail sales with a "buy local" campaign it launched in May but that had not been going as well as they had hoped.

She said part of the reason was that retailers were forgetting to give out the scratch-and-win vouchers to shoppers who spend $50 or more in the participating stores.

"We've reminded them on occasions and when that happens there's been a rush of shoppers coming into our office to redeem their vouchers," she said.

She said Mainstreet would give the "buy local" campaign another big push before Christmas.

Mainstreet had looked at the impact of similar campaigns around New Zealand and overseas and generally noted an increase in sales of between 1 and 2 per cent.

Ms Goodge said while the increase did not sound like a lot, for Wanganui it would take the retail sector out of negative growth for the first time in four or five years.

She it was aimed at countering the amount of money Wanganui people were spending out of town which she termed "worrying".