Retailers across Australia and New Zealand are reporting heightened concerns about their trading performance over the next three months, largely driven by the current global fuel crisis. The Australian Retail Council\u2019s (ARC) latest survey reveals that supply chain conditions have worsened over the past month for three in four businesses, with cost pressures intensifying across freight, logistics, and energy sectors.<\/p>\n
Concerns about the economic outlook are mounting, exacerbated by historically weak consumer confidence and persistent inflationary pressures. Two in three surveyed retailers express a high or severe level of concern regarding trading conditions for the upcoming quarter, while approximately half anticipate these disruptions to continue for at least six months. Shipping and freight costs remain a significant pressure point, with around three in five retailers reporting increases exceeding 10 per cent, placing considerable strain on sector viability.<\/p>\n
ARC CEO Chris Rodwell stated that retailers continue to prioritize customers despite these challenges. \u201cThree in four businesses report they are absorbing cost increases either fully or partially,\u201d Rodwell noted. \u201cHowever, this approach has become unsustainable for many. Around two in five retailers now expect they will need to increase prices by approximately five per cent within the next three months to offset rising costs, with some anticipating larger increases if current conditions persist.\u201d Rodwell added that tightening margins are forcing retailers into difficult decisions. \u201cRetailers are doing everything they can to shield customers, but unless we see improvements, the supply chain disruption will unfortunately be felt by customers at the checkout,\u201d he warned.<\/p>\n
Similarly, New Zealand\u2019s peak retail body, Retail NZ, released a quarterly survey this week, indicating a shift from largely optimistic to deeply pessimistic sentiment among its retailers due to the global fuel crisis. The group\u2019s Retail Radar report shows that while positive sales and rising consumer confidence buoyed retailers at the end of 2025 and early 2026, the situation in the Middle East has abruptly halted this trend. \u201cWhile 51 per cent of survey respondents were able to meet or exceed their targets from January to March 2026, just 33 per cent believe they will be able to do so next quarter,\u201d said Retail NZ CEO Carolyn Young. \u201cRetailers have traditionally shown higher levels of optimism than their sales figures would suggest, so the fact 66 per cent don\u2019t expect to meet sales targets in the June quarter tells us the sector is bracing for a significant and sustained downturn.\u201d Young highlighted that this level of pessimism has not been seen in almost two years, despite the sector \u201cpractically running on empty\u201d since the COVID-19 pandemic with minimal financial buffer.<\/p>\n
Furthermore, 61 per cent of Retail Radar survey respondents are confident of surviving the next 12 months, but 29 per cent are uncertain, answering \u2018really not sure – could go either way\u2019 \u2013 the highest this figure has been in over two years. Young emphasized that freight costs have become a major concern for 79 per cent of retailers, trailing only inflation and cost-of-living (both at 85 per cent) as key concerns. \u201cAll of these factors are exacerbated by the huge increase in fuel costs that we\u2019re seeing at the pump,\u201d Young added. The survey also indicates that NZ retailers are anxious about the wide-ranging knock-on effects of the Middle East conflict and fuel shortages. All areas polled by Retail NZ \u2013 foot traffic, product supply, consumer confidence, high street vitality, and the wider economy \u2013 were ranked as a concern by at least 70 per cent of respondents. \u201cRetail NZ members are clear that they would like to see more support from the Government in this period of economic uncertainty,\u201d Young stated, suggesting encouragement for office work, assistance for freight companies with fuel costs, and promoting local shopping.<\/p>\n
In Australia, retailers have welcomed recent Government measures to secure fuel supply, noting that fuel excise reductions and changes to the heavy vehicle user charge provide meaningful, albeit partial, relief. However, the sector is calling for further targeted and practical support, the ARC reported. Priority measures identified by retailers include relief for freight and logistics costs, additional energy cost support, and further action on fuel excise. There is also strong support for greater government effort to strengthen Australia\u2019s fuel and energy security. Retailers believe that reducing administrative and regulatory burdens \u2013 particularly inconsistencies across state borders \u2013 would deliver immediate benefits. Improved national coordination to reduce freight bottlenecks has also been identified as a critical reform to support the sector both during the current crisis and into the future. \u201cThere has never been a better time than now to lock in reform to reduce inconsistent rules and regulations across Australian states, especially to support logistics at a time when supply chains are already under pressure,\u201d Rodwell asserted.<\/p>\n
The ARC noted that these calls for Government action come as retail trade insolvencies have tripled compared to the levels recorded across the entirety of the 2021-22 financial year. \u201cPolicymakers must recognize the critical nature of the retail industry’s $444 billion contribution to the Australian economy,\u201d Rodwell concluded. \u201cNo matter what lies ahead in this crisis, retail must remain open and operating to ensure households can continue to access essential goods, maintain local employment, and support economic stability.\u201d<\/p>\n
#RetailCrisis #SupplyChainDisruption #FuelPrices #EconomicOutlook #ConsumerConfidence #MiddleEastConflict #InflationImpact #RetailNZ #AustralianRetail #BusinessChallenges<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Retailers across Australia and New Zealand are reporting heightened concerns about their trading performance over the next three months, largely driven by the current global fuel crisis. The Australian Retail Council\u2019s (ARC) latest survey reveals that supply chain conditions have worsened over the past month for three in four businesses, with cost pressures intensifying across […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17358,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17357","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle-east-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fajr.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17357","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fajr.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fajr.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fajr.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fajr.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17357"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/fajr.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17357\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fajr.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/17358"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fajr.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fajr.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fajr.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}