With less than a week left in the month Sydney’s average daily maximum for the March-May period is about 24.5 degrees, easily above the previous warmest average for autumn of 24.1 degrees, set in 2006, according to the Bureau of Meteorology.
While speaking with the Sydney Morning Herald, Mr Zimmerman said that the record breaking May sunshine has dulled sales figures.
“This is having a huge impact on retail turnover, margins and stock holdings,” Mr Zimmerman said.
“It’s being felt across the industry, from those selling winter coats and boots, to the kitchenware’s business, such as soup makers and crockpots, to electric blankets and heaters.
Liberty Watson – one of the creative halves behind the Australian label Watson x Watson – says the warmer weather is causing smaller retailer’s to sweat because of an increase in the consumers hesitation to purchase.
“Sales are down in the last few months because with the warm weather people aren’t spending as much as often,” Watson told The Weekly. “Girls are planning out their winter wardrobe before they actually go through with the purchase.”
The Climate Institute’s CEO, John Connor says that the heat on retail might be a sign of changes that are here to stay.
“The projections are that we will have both warmer weather and both wilder weather in a world of climate change and the experience to date is all lining up with those projections,” said Connor.
Conner says the variation in weather means shorter winters – this would render the current quarterly seasonal planning for retailers erroneous.
“It certainly is affecting the seasons. We do know for example that our bush fire season are starting much earlier and lasting longer with more intensity. That is obviously a clear sign that we are eating into our winters,” said Conner.
But Watson says historically May can be quite slow due to other factors such as the federal budget as well as the ongoing decline in sales due to the growing popularity of online shopping.
“Nationally every retailer in Australia that I speak to has said how much they’re down on sales,” said Watson. “Some boutiques have rattled off that they are $200,000 dollars down from last November – that’s not a big space of time.”
Watson – whose label’s flagship store is located in Sydney’s boutique hub of Paddington – says not hope is lost for small businesses and an adaptive approach might improve sales.
“We’re quite trans-seasonal so we tend to find Australian winters don’t tend to bite that hard so we do keep trans-seasonal stock all year round and that has worked in our favour,” said Watson.
“We do things to encourage sales on the weekends. We serve French champagne, we serve coconut water, we serve green juices, we have platters of chocolate – we try and make it an experience at our store and make it special.
“With good service people will shop in boutiques no matter what.”
Mr Zimmerman warned that if the cool change does come, it might be too late.
“Even if we get a sharp cold spell, most people will now wait for the sales to buy new items that they may only use for a couple of months.”
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