Aussie consumers trim household budgets to pay for Christmas splurge

Australian consumers are cutting back on luxury goods and services, looking for bargains, and switching to cheaper brands as...

Australian consumers are cutting back on luxury goods and services, looking for bargains, and switching to cheaper brands as they battle rising inflation. However, shoppers are still gearing up for a bumper pre-Christmas sales season with almost half feeling confident and one in five planning to outspend last year, according...

Read More

2022 Consumer Sentiment Report – Prepare your business for the retail events season now

Retail is ever-changing and consumers now have different expectations in the retail environment. Whether it is where they shop,...

Retail is ever-changing and consumers now have different expectations in the retail environment. Whether it is where they shop, how they purchase, or what they use to research, it is all now part of the evolving retail ecosystem. The National Retail Association, working in partnership with Retail Doctor Group, have...

Read More

“Santa needs more helpers”, retailers urged to fill Christmas vacancies

Peak industry body the National Retail Association is calling on businesses to prepare for the tough competition for Christmas casuals...

Peak industry body the National Retail Association is calling on businesses to prepare for the tough competition for Christmas casuals this year, with many already kicking off recruitment campaigns in the face of labour shortages. Retail is optimistic consumers will pick up spending momentum as the busy Christmas season approaches, but...

Read More

Restaurant Industry Award wages increase on 1 October 2022

Employers in the restaurant industry are reminded that from 1 October 2022 minimum rates of pay will increase. Following the...

Employers in the restaurant industry are reminded that from 1 October 2022 minimum rates of pay will increase. Following the Annual Wage Review decision in June, the Fair Work Commission ordered the 5.2% increase to minimum rates for all modern awards. This increase was delayed for numerous industries, including the restaurant...

Read More

Retailers support steps to eliminate sexual harassment, but employer education needed

Peak industry body the National Retail Association has supported the Albanese Government’s proposed reforms to address sexual harassment, introduced...

Peak industry body the National Retail Association has supported the Albanese Government’s proposed reforms to address sexual harassment, introduced to Parliament today. Interim CEO Lindsay Carroll said with the adoption of legislative change comes the need for greater education for employers, especially small businesses, to help the industry put an...

Read More

Presenting 2022 Young Retailer of the Year

Stephen Poole, from Brisbane, Queensland was announced the National Retail Association’s 2022 Young Retailer of the Year on 16...

Stephen Poole, from Brisbane, Queensland was announced the National Retail Association’s 2022 Young Retailer of the Year on 16 September at the Star Gold Coast. In its 50th year of celebrating retail excellence, the Young Retailer of the Year award has been around for close to half a century because...

Read More

8 billion containers saved from landfill in NSW

The NSW Return and Earn program has reached a major recycling milestone with 8 billion bottles, cans and drink...

The NSW Return and Earn program has reached a major recycling milestone with 8 billion bottles, cans and drink cartons returned since 2017. Minister for Environment James Griffin said the initiative has fundamentally shifted people’s behaviour, turning what was once seen as waste into a now-valuable resource for the recycling...

Read More

Retail profitability returns to pre-Covid levels

Retail profitability in Australia has bounced back to pre-Covid levels for the first time since the pandemic began, the...

Retail profitability in Australia has bounced back to pre-Covid levels for the first time since the pandemic began, the economic insights report released by the National Retail Association has been revealed. The figures show the sector’s profits have increased by 4.9 percent year on year for the June quarter, following a...

Read More

Industry-wide bargaining would be unsuitable and unfair, retailers warn

Proposed industry-wide bargaining would create an “inequitable, unsuitable, and ultimately redundant” bargaining system, according to a retail industry position...

Proposed industry-wide bargaining would create an “inequitable, unsuitable, and ultimately redundant” bargaining system, according to a retail industry position paper released today. The National Retail Association analysis of the proposed changes says they would create an enterprise bargaining system that was “simply blind to the intricacies and individualities of independent...

Read More

Future Leaders shaping the way of the future

The National Retail Association's Future Leaders Lunch this year was held at the Cucino Vivo restaurant at the Star...

The National Retail Association's Future Leaders Lunch this year was held at the Cucino Vivo restaurant at the Star Gold Coast on 16 September and welcomed all the nominees across the categories of the 2022 HR of the Year, Store Manager of the Year, and Young Retailer of the...

Read More

Australia’s best retailers unveiled at 2022 National Retail Awards

The National Retail Association (NRA) unveiled Australia’s most exceptional retailers across all levels and categories of the industry at...

The National Retail Association (NRA) unveiled Australia’s most exceptional retailers across all levels and categories of the industry at its National Retail Awards held last Friday. Coming together for the first time since 2019, retailers across the country gathered at the Gold Coast for a gala event to celebrate the...

Read More

Retailers call for least cost routing to move to top of agenda

Retailers are continuing to call for the Albanese Government to lower expenses for small and medium-sized businesses by mandating...

Retailers are continuing to call for the Albanese Government to lower expenses for small and medium-sized businesses by mandating least-cost routing. The latest Retail Payment data for July released by the Reserve Bank showed a 27.3 percent increase in total card payments year on year, of which the payment fees,...

Read More

Bon voyage to a true retail advocacy trailblazer

Message from NRA Chairman, Tim Schaafsma This Friday, our long-serving CEO Dominique Lamb will finish her tenure at the NRA. ...

Message from NRA Chairman, Tim Schaafsma This Friday, our long-serving CEO Dominique Lamb will finish her tenure at the NRA.  As I mentioned in my communication to members last week, Dominique has been the CEO of the organisation for seven years, and was the Director of NRA Legal for two...

Read More

Victorian Government helps SMEs close gender pay gap

The National Retail Association welcomes the Victorian Government’s release of educational resources to help SMEs better understand how they...

The National Retail Association welcomes the Victorian Government’s release of educational resources to help SMEs better understand how they can close the gender pay gap. The materials developed by Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission (VEOHRC) give the state the opportunity to create large-scale change from the ground up. The...

Read More

Retailers welcome harsher penalties for worker abuse

Peak industry body the National Retail Association (NRA) has welcomed the South Australian government’s move to implement tougher penalties...

Peak industry body the National Retail Association (NRA) has welcomed the South Australian government’s move to implement tougher penalties for people who abuse retail workers, coming into effect today. Chief Executive Dominique Lamb said the NRA supports all efforts to tackle the abuse of retail workers. “South Australia’s decision to inflict...

Read More

High failure rates for businesses means the government must tread carefully

High failure rates among Australian businesses should be a red flag to the Federal Government to tread carefully with...

High failure rates among Australian businesses should be a red flag to the Federal Government to tread carefully with policy reforms, the nation’s retailers have warned. Responding to ABS figures reports of a 12.7 per cent failure rate in the nation’s businesses last financial year, National Retail Association CEO Dominique...

Read More