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Carolyn Young: Retail NZ CEO on the growing number of Kiwis shopping at local stores · Best of Business

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  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from News Talks'd be follow
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  Speaker 2: Now, how's this for a few things that we probably
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  Speaker 2: didn't expect. Apparently we ke we's like to shop local,
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  Speaker 2: even when there is a cheaper office a cheaper option.
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  Speaker 2: Is a new report by light Speed which says that
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  Speaker 2: forty percent of US are shopping at local stores. Thirty
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  Speaker 2: four percent of US are buying from local websites. Retail
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  Speaker 2: New Zealand chief executive Carolyn Young is with us. Hi, Carolyn, Hi, Heather,
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  Speaker 2: how are you going to be here? I'm very pleased
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  Speaker 2: you with us? Okay, So let's look at these numbers.
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  Speaker 2: It sounds good, but does it mean that the remaining
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  Speaker 2: numbers are shopping from are buying from foreigners? So, for example,
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  Speaker 2: forty percent of US are buying from local stores, does
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  Speaker 2: that mean sixty percent of buying from foreign owned stores.
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  Speaker 3: That would mean that it's executive summary, yes, but not
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  Speaker 3: necessarily all of their purchases. It would mean that you know,
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  Speaker 3: people will be buying I'll be mixing at hour, yeah, yeah,
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  Speaker 3: mix them up, and some some will be you know,
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  Speaker 3: my be five percent. Some might be thirty percent, right,
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  Speaker 3: So it's really about you know, what we want to
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  Speaker 3: encourage is that sense of loyalty to our community that
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  Speaker 3: love your high street. You know, what's your local store
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  Speaker 3: in the suburb that you live and that you really love,
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  Speaker 3: and you know that your neighbors kids have worked there,
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  Speaker 3: or your kids have worked there, or you worked there.
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  Speaker 1: You know.
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  Speaker 3: It's that sort of thing about how do we connect
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  Speaker 3: to local? So having more of that and being really
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  Speaker 3: proud of New Zealand would be really important steps forward
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  Speaker 3: for us.
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  Speaker 2: And I was also really fascinated by the numbers that
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  Speaker 2: show that the majority of us are still wanting to
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  Speaker 2: shop in store. So seventy six percent of a home,
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  Speaker 2: where's sixty four percent for clothing, sixty two for health
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  Speaker 2: and beauty? How is that tracking over time?
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  Speaker 1: Though?
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  Speaker 3: Well, look, obviously you know over time we have seen
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  Speaker 3: a move to online, but New Zealand is predominantly by
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  Speaker 3: in stare Now. There's a couple of reasons for that.
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  Speaker 3: One is that we are a smaller country and we
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  Speaker 3: do know people in store and we do like to
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  Speaker 3: go in and connect with them. And I think the
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  Speaker 3: interesting thing that the research showed, of course was that
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  Speaker 3: you know, the personal the item, the more likelihood you're
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  Speaker 3: going to go in store rather than if it's a
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  Speaker 3: functional item that you buy on a regular basis, you know,
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  Speaker 3: the style or size or whatever it might be, whether
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  Speaker 3: it's you know, multi itemins or something like that. But
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  Speaker 3: what we do know in terms of purchases that people
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  Speaker 3: have started to buy online, and the online is a
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  Speaker 3: really important part for retail And the most important part
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  Speaker 3: is actually because we know that everyone goes on the
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  Speaker 3: majority of people go online first when they're thinking about
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  Speaker 3: buying something, they go online to see what there is available.
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  Speaker 3: Now that does convert someone some people to buy online
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  Speaker 3: in that spot, but others will have a short list,
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  Speaker 3: they'll go in store and they'll be really clear about
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  Speaker 3: what it.
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  Speaker 1: Is they want.
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  Speaker 3: They'll say, look, I saw this online. I wanted to
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  Speaker 3: see it in this size and this color.
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  Speaker 1: Do you have that?
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  Speaker 3: And so that's also the piece that they're leaning into
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  Speaker 3: where you know, there is an expectation moving forward that
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  Speaker 3: stores would be able to show the volar human colors
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  Speaker 3: and all of those sorts of things that might be
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  Speaker 3: held in what stocks held in stores. So it enables
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  Speaker 3: enhances your ability to purchase, right. So yeah, really important.
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  Speaker 2: I'm also the whole thing is quite fascinating. Ninety nine
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  Speaker 2: point seven percent of local businesses are absorbing costs rather
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  Speaker 2: than passing them on. They can't do that much longer.
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  Speaker 2: I would have thought, can they.
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  Speaker 3: They cannot do that much longer. No, And because it's
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  Speaker 3: not just the cost of getting freight getting goods to
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  Speaker 3: your business, because you've got freight coming in, you've got
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  Speaker 3: freight going out. We've heard that, you know, people have
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  Speaker 3: got increased prices on their rubbish collection, increased prices on
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  Speaker 3: their recycling collection. Anything where someone's delivering or picking up
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  Speaker 3: from your store, there's increased prices. And you know, we
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  Speaker 3: know rates have gone up, insurance has gone up, wages
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  Speaker 3: have gone up, all of those things. And we know
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  Speaker 3: that businesses are struggling with cash flow and that ird
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  Speaker 3: are being really vigilant about ensuring they're paid. And so
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  Speaker 3: our messages to retailers are to be really aware of
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  Speaker 3: margins that make sure you pay the IID because they
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  Speaker 3: can close you down pretty quickly if you can't afford
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  Speaker 3: to pay them. Talk to them, get a payment plan
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  Speaker 3: put in place, and sure that you can survive this
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  Speaker 3: difficult time so that when we come right that you're
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  Speaker 3: still there, and you know, if you have to put
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  Speaker 3: up prices, you know we're talking about you know, looking
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  Speaker 3: at a fuel charge where it's temporary reviewable. You know,
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  Speaker 3: it's based on the increased costs that you're seeing, rather
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  Speaker 3: than baking a price and having it just to like
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  Speaker 3: a blanket increase in prices. What is the what is
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  Speaker 3: the cost of this Middle East crisis to your business?
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  Speaker 3: And how do you cover that for this period of
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  Speaker 3: time and then bring that back off when it's no
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  Speaker 3: longer there.
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  Speaker 2: Very good advice, Carolyn, Thank you very much, Carolyn Young,
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  Speaker 2: Retail New Zealand Chief Executive.
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