SYDNEY, June 1 (Xinhua) -- Australian retail sales rebounded in April after a slow start to the year, according to new figures released on Thursday.
The latest Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) figures showed 1 percent rise in retail turnover for the month of April. The figures are particularly encouraging for retailers after a fall of 0.2 percent in March and flat performance in February.
Market analyst consensus expected a gain of 0.3 percent, but the robust 1 percent gain equates to a total retail spend of 25.89 billion Australian dollars (19.12 billion U.S. dollars) for the month of April.
The increase was powered by department store sales, with the seasonally adjusted figures showing a 2.5 percent increase. Food retailing gained 1.2 percent, while cafes and restaurants saw a rise of 1.1 percent.
However, not all retailers experienced the same positive results. Those in electronics dropped off 1.1 percent, while footwear and personal accessories sales also fell 2.2 percent.
National Australia Bank senior economist James Glenn told Xinhua, despite the positive results, the Australian retail sector is still "not out of the woods."
"While it's certainly a welcome sign, we need to see these results continue for a couple of months before we can be confident it's really turning around. It's one month's worth of data and it's following a fairly soft period," Glenn said on Thursday.
"Australia is plagued by subdued wages growth and household debt is at record levels, which is constraining on spending as well."
With many retailers folding over the past few months in Australia, including notable Australian labels like Rhodes & Beckett, Marcs, and David Lawrence who all went into voluntary administration earlier this year, the results have been welcomed by the struggling sector,
Glenn said the environment is "highly competitive" and there are still big challenges ahead for domestic retailers, including competition from international giants like Amazon, which is set to start its Australian operations in September.
The arrival of Amazon will be disruptive to the Australian market, according to Ric Spooner, chief market analyst at CMC Markets, who told Xinhua on Thursday that shareholders and retailers have a lot of questions that need answering.
"I think there's little doubt that it will be a big negative for some of the existing players and it's inevitable that effective online players like Amazon are likely to obtain some market shares and put downward pressure on markets," Spooner said.
"Part of their model is to be aggressive and out-price competition so the question for shareholders is whether that negative impact has already resulted in discounted prices, well before Amazon has opened up."
