Amazon recently sent a letter to a number vendors on its first-party (1P) platform informing them they would move to third-party (3P). What’s the change and why?  Under 1P, Amazon takes the inventory and price risk. Under 3P, the vendor (brand owner) takes these risks. Australian retail profit margins are generally higher than five years ago with gross margins better than feared. In our view, a key reason is that online retailers are less aggressive on price. Amazon’s shift is a good example of the shift in mindset. We expect retailers to sustain higher gross margins. The problem is their sales growth may remain underwhelming relative to operating cost growth.

Coles reported 1Q24 sales growth of 4.7% from its Supermarket division and 1.8% for Liquor. While Coles results were weaker than Woolworths, underlying trends remain quite similar and the growth gap is likely to remain small. The challenge for Coles is that sales growth is likely to be below underlying cost growth, putting an emphasis on cost savings to protect margins.

Australian retail sales grew 1.9% for August 2023 on the prior corresponding month. The additional detail provided by the ABS revealed very weak sales in electronics, furniture and recreational goods. Non-food online went backwards too. Supermarket sales dipped to 4.5% growth, driven by deflation in fresh categories. We are approaching the trough in retail sales over the next few months. Even so, any recovery in 2024 may be longer-dated and weaker than hoped until tax cuts take effect later in that year.

We are entering the silly season for retail. Over recent years promotions have started earlier with a rapid embrace of offshore events like Black Friday. Achieving a good November and December can make or break a retailer’s year. We expect earlier and bigger promotions this November, but it’s not a sign of desperation. These promotions are planned and aimed at stimulating sales. Even so, given huge November events in 2020 and 2021, it will be hard to deliver more than 3% sales growth in our view. With a swing back to stores this year, we expect December to be stronger.

Over the next six weeks a number of retailers will provide updates on their trading. We expect to see incredibly strong sales for most non-food retailers. September sales growth could be north of 20% and October could be up low double-digits. Supermarkets have seen slower sales recently, but should see an acceleration starting to show through in October. November could be a speed bump given enormous growth rates in 2020 and 2021. However, Black Friday promotions may start earlier and more retailers are likely to participate. We also expect a solid December trading period across the retail sector.

We have upgraded our retail sales outlook for FY23e given such a strong start to the fiscal year and the benefit that wages growth and inflation will have on sales over the next six months. We forecast retail sales growth of 6.0% (prev 3.4%) for FY23e and 0.8% for FY24e (prev 2.4%). The weakest period of sales growth is likely to be the December 2023 half in our view, making the downturn still some time away. We are watching retail inflation closely.

Australian supermarket industry sales only rose 3% in July 2022. The slowdown is not a reflection of customers retaliating to higher prices, its merely the normalisation from lockdowns last year. In this report, we analyse the likely normalisation path in sales. Coles is likely to grow faster than Woolworths in the September quarter. However, the real winner is Metcash which is holding onto the vast majority of its customer gains. Since 2018, the fundamental shift from the majors to reduce promotions and open fewer stores has provided a better operating environment for Metcash.

Australian retail sales rose 12.2% year on year in June 2022. The three year compound annual growth rate for June was 7.8%, significantly above long term trends around 5%. Drilling down into categories, the strongest were cafes & restaurants and fashion. The only spot of weakness was fresh food specialists. In our view, retail sales will remain strong through the next four months lapping lockdowns from a year ago, with the first signs of weakness possible in November 2022. Retail sales are likely to be weak in 2023 given lower household income growth.

It’s shaping up to be a great Christmas for Australian retailers, but the share market remains cautious. Sales feedback is positive. Margins are likely to surprise on the upside. We are hearing strong feedback in appliances, apparel and footwear. Given November-December can be more than one-third of annual earnings, there is upside to consensus expectations for FY22e in our view. While sales look good, investors are nervous about buying into a peak in retail earnings.

Coles (28 October 2021) and Woolworths (27 October 2021) will release 1Q22e sales next week. We forecast Coles to deliver 0.9% comparable sales growth in Supermarkets, with Woolworths at 3.3%. The gap will have opened in Woolworths favour given lockdowns favoured online sales and Coles had availability challenges given disruptions from COVID-19 in its DCs. We expect these issues are likely to unwind and the growth gap will narrow considerably beyond 1Q22e.