News

Women’s fashion chain City Chic Collective, which has stores in Australia and New Zealand as well as wholesale distribution in the US and Europe, says online sales rocketed 57 per cent while its stores were closed because of the coronavirus pandemic.

With an already large chunk of its earnings coming from online, the gains by its online store ensured City Chic traded profitability during a shutdown from March 27.

City Chic, in a trading update, said a staged reopening had begun of its stores in Australia and New Zealand, while it had also secured some cost reductions, including rental relief.

The boom in online sales has been matched by other merchandise, fashion and discretionary outlets, with retailers such as Woolworths, Coles, Kathmandu, Adairs and Kogan.com witnessing huge growth in online sales.

“Being an omni-channel retailer with online contributing two-thirds of our global sales, a majority of our business has continued to operate through the COVID-19 related restrictions,” said City Chic chief executive Phil Ryan. “This has pleasingly meant we have traded profitably through this period.”

Shares in the company closed up 15.6 per cent at $2.82.

While online sales surged 57 per cent during the shutdown, there had also been strong sales in its intimates, casual and streetwear offerings.

Fashion retailer City Chic has begun reopening stores across Australia and New Zealand after the lockdown led to a period of online growth.

A number of stores were reopened on a trial basis over the past two weeks to ensure safety protocols were prepared for a wider relaunch, and as such a staged rollout of City Chic’s 107 Australian and New Zealand stores.

“I am proud of how engaged our store teams have been throughout the closure period and know they are ready and energised to get back to serving our customers in store,” City Chic chief executive Phil Ryan said. 

City Chic didn’t comment on a time frame for the relaunch of stores, though has been able to negotiate lower or more appropriate rents for the majority of its sites. An eligibility for JobKeeper in Australia and the Wage Subsidy Scheme in New Zealand has helped to further keep costs down. 

The business’ e-commerce operations previously made up about two-thirds of sales, making the closure of its stores less punishing than in the case of some other retailers. 

And during this period online sales grew 57 per cent versus the same period of the year prior. 

“We achieved that by quickly moving to adjust our product mix to better suit the customer’s needs during these times,” Ryan said. 

Customers leaned toward the intimates, streetwear and casual categories of City Chic’s offer, which offset the fall in its higher-end ranges, though increased promotional activity pushed online gross margin down. 

They said it appeared some consumers were tapping into their "household travel budget", which, because of state and international border bans, had remained unused over recent months.

"It seems that ANZ-observed retail spending is still stronger than what we might have expected before the full reopening of the economy," they said. "Non-essential retail growth is converging with elevated grocery spending, as fashion sales almost fully recover and home-related spending remains strong."

Even areas that had been heavily affected, such as car hire, car park and petrol station spending, were showing signs of improvement.

CBA's data, which also covers the week to May 22, showed further improvement although it noted total spending was still down on where it was in early January before the onset of coronavirus.

Shoppers rushed into to stores across Victoria for Mother’s Day despite coronavirus restrictions remaining in place, as the state continues to experience a rise in COVID-19 cases.

Senior economist Kristina Clifton said many areas that had in effect shut down were now open and enjoying customers.

"Clothing and personal care are continuing to recover. People are going back to work and school and are starting to head out to socialise more which is likely prompting a wardrobe refresh," she said.

"The winter weather has also hit. Personal care spending is likely to improve further as barbers, hair and beauty salons etc continue to open for business again."

The CBA figures do show the impact of the closure of international tourism on the broader Australian economy.

Spending through the bank's overall merchant facilities is down 7.5 per cent over the year compared to a 0.6 per cent increase in CBA instore card spending.

"The difference is partly explained by the drop in overseas resident spend, which has fallen significantly because of the plunge in overseas arrivals," Ms Clifton said.

"Business card spend is also likely to have contracted by more than household spend given the big increase in the number of people working from home and the decline in domestic business-related travel."

In Sydney's Pitt Street mall on Tuesday shoppers, some wearing face masks, could be seen strolling along with their purchases in hand or making their way into stores and onto escalators.

Myer's announcement last week that it will open the remainder of its department stores from Wednesday has also buoyed consumers' spirit.

At the end of last month, GPT had reported that just 35 per cent of its retail stores, by number, were open and trading.

Foot traffic across the GPT portfolio is around 75 per cent of where it was at the corresponding period last year for most centres. It was at 65 per cent two weeks ago, and is up from around 50 per cent in April.

Scentre said customers were feeling more confident to visit its Westfield malls, where the range of retailers opening each day was expanding.

"We continue to see a steady increase in store reopenings each week,” a spokeswoman said.

Consumer spending data released on Tuesday added depth to the picture of an emerging rebound in shopping. Credit and debit card data from Commonwealth Bank and ANZ show consumer spending has recovered to the extent that it is now above where it was this time last year.

The portfolio of malls managed by ASX-listed Vicinity includes the country's largest, Chadstone in Melbourne's south-east, along with well-known CBD destinations such as Emporium Melbourne and the Queen Victoria Building in Sydney.

"We are seeing early signs of recovery, which combined with government stimulus measures, and the resilience and the speed with which the pandemic has been contained, have restored confidence among retailers to reopen and customers to return safely," Mr Kelley said.

"That said, the retail environment remains uncertain and we expect challenging conditions to persist for the remainder of this year."

"The actions announced reflect our continued focus on investing in Kmart, a business with a compelling customer offer and strong competitive advantages, while also improving the viability of Target by addressing some of its structural challenges by simplifying the business model," Mr Scott said.

"While accounting standards require us to recognise an impairment of assets within Target to implement the restructuring, these actions will allow us to enhance the overall value of Kmart Group and further strengthen Kmart."

Affected Target staff will be offered jobs at Kmart or provided other employment opportunities across the Wesfarmers portfolio, which includes Bunnings and Officeworks. Any team members unable to be redeployed will have access to support services and provided with entitlements, such as redundancy payouts.

Options for the 100-odd remaining Target stores will be assessed and an update provided to investors at Wesfarmers' full-year results in August, with the company saying it is looking at further store closures and a change to Target's operating model.

Retailer Amazon has taken space in Melbourne Airport Business Park as a depot for gig-economy Amazon Flex delivery drivers to service the city's northern and western suburbs.

The 330sq m distribution hub in the airport's 600-hectare business park – the country's largest – is the first standalone facility for the delivery service Amazon launched in January, and which has to date run solely out of its fulfilment centre in Dandenong in south-eastern Melbourne.

"The Amazon Flex program gives us the agility to supplement the work we do with our existing carrier partners so we can speed up delivery times and respond to peaks in demand," said Amazon Australia director of operations Craig Fuller.

"The new hub at Melbourne Airport will give us increased capacity to service customer orders to the north and west of Melbourne as needed.

Lease terms for the site at 8 Mace Way, on the edge of Airport Drive, were not disclosed.

The hub for its independent-contractor driver service helps Amazon overcome the challenges of last-mile delivery at a time of growing ecommerce. Packages will still be packed at the Dandenong centre and then transported to the Amazon Flex hub for delivery.

In Sydney, Amazon Flex drivers collect from Amazon's existing centre in Moorebank. The company gave no detail of plans to open further hubs.

“We don’t have any further locations to announce but we will continue to evaluate our delivery network to support the needs of our customers," Mr Fuller said.

The Amazon Flex service supplements Amazon's four courier and logistics carriers – Australia Post, Toll, Fastway and Ceva – to deliver parcels.

Amazon Flex has been criticised overseas for undermining the rights of contractors, who have no job security or guaranteed hours, drive their own cars and pay for their own car maintenance, fuel, insurance and parking tickets.

Flex drivers in the US have complained that their take-home pay often falls to less than $US10 ($14.50) an hour after factoring in these expenses.

Melbourne Airport head of property Linc Horton said the business park offered good access to arterial roads.

"We were able to marry that connectivity with the sheer space we have available in our business park," Mr Horton said.

"So when they called looking for a flexible warehousing option to support this program, we had the ability to cut through a whole lot of procedural red tape and just get a deal done for them.”

Department store Myer will trial the opening of a further nine stores from this Friday after reopening doors at 15 locations in the past week.

Myer's decision came as retail trade figures showed its worst ever monthly fall with sales collapsing 17.9 per cent in April in seasonally adjusted terms, reflecting the darkest days of the COVID-19 shutdown.

While more retailers are testing the fragile confidence of shoppers as bricks and mortar stores reopen around Australia, many are permanently shuttering underperforming sites due to COVID-19.

Myer said Wednesday it will reopen stores at Carousel and Joondalup in WA, Canberra City in the ACT; Blacktown, Eastgardens, and Charlestown in NSW; Maroochydore and Mackay in Queensland; and Marion in South Australia.

This is in addition to trial stores that have already opened in NSW: Albury, Dubbo, Wagga, Erina, Miranda, Bankstown and Liverpool; Queensland: Chermside, Carindale, North Lakes, Townsville and Toowoomba; WA: Morley, Garden City; and Tea Tree Plaza in South Australia.

Myer said the reopening of stores is occurring progressively and on a staged basis, taking into account government measures and conditions across the different states, particularly in relation to the easing of restrictions and stay-at-home measures.

Many retailers have been gradually reopening physical stores using strict hygiene rules, but it's far from business as usual. Some companies like Kathmandu and Mosaic Brands (owners of brands like Noni B, Autograph and Rivers) are not opening change rooms to the public, while plenty of hand sanitiser and customer spacing restrictions will be enforced.

Myer is opening fitting rooms to customers but said it remains focused on providing a safe working and shopping environment for all, with enhanced safety and cleaning measures to be implemented.

Some services will remain suspended including beauty appointments, intimate apparel and suit and shoe fittings, Myer said.

Myer reopened eight more stores last Saturday but none of them were in Victoria.

Myer had a setback on Friday when it emerged that a staff member working in a click-and-collect operation at the group's Highpoint shopping centre store in suburban Melbourne had tested positive for COVID-19 earlier in the week.

The Myer Highpoint store had already been closed for weeks as part of a national shutdown.

While many sectors of the retail industry have flagged and struggled during the coronavirus epidemic, some have seen a boost in relevance and seen respectable jumps in revenue.

The baby goods category is one such area, with Baby Bunting having enjoyed a 13.2 per cent leap in total sales during its second half. 

All stores remained open during the lockdown period and as such comparable store sales growth also grew 8.1 per cent, while online sales jumped 66 per cent on the prior corresponding period, representing 17.3 per cent of total sales during the half.

“There are around 6000 babies born in Australia each week and we are critically aware of how important it is to provide support to new and expectant parents at a time when they face additional challenges brought about by social distancing requirements,” Baby Bunting chief executive Matt Spencer said. 

According to Spencer the business initially saw strong demand for lower margin consumable products such as nappies and baby wipes. As the lockdown continued, however, buying trends started moving toward nursery goods – cots, furniture, toys, playgear and bedding, for example. 

“We did see lower transactions in travel-related products such as prams and car seats. However, as restrictions have eased sales of these products have begun to recover,” Spencer said. 

“It is difficult to anticipate how these buying trends will play out over the coming period and how gross margin will be impacted.”

In order to continue to support its customers, Baby Bunting has undertaken a number of new initiatives, including expanding its personalised telephone shopping service, a price guarantee and the launch of an additional online fulfilment hub at Casula, New South Wales. 

The business’ online site is also being upgraded to facilitate cross-border sales, which is expected to be finished by the end of the financial year.

However, due to a number of incoming improvements to its online infrastructure, Baby Bunting expects to recognise a $2 million to $3 million non-cash impairment in investment in its FY20 results. 

Showpo has launched a new eCommerce platform, enabling it to enhance the shopping experience and accelerate growth in new markets. 

The Sydney-based, pureplay online retailer is one of Australia's fastest growing fashion retailers and has amassed a reach of over four million users across social media platforms. 

With customers in Australia, New Zealand, Europe and USA, Showpo has now set its sights on expanding to further international markets and elevating its brand in countries across the world. 

To enable this expansion, the business has invested in a new platform to help support its growth, as well as helping it handle the logistical challenges of moving into new markets, all while enhancing the customer experience. 

Showpo's new platform provides it with a unified backend, helping it to expand its brand into new regions and manage the different sites from a single platform.

It also enables Showpo to introduce a range of different cartridges to provide innovative services to customers, such as different payment options or loyalty scheme benefits. 

The new website also offers an integrated and innovative shopping experience through social integrations and blogs, wherever consumers interact with the Showpo brand, on mobile, web or social. 

Showpo founder and CEO Jane Lu said that it was imperative for the business to invest in the new platform. 

"Our entire business is driven by our customers – the more we understand them, the better we can serve them.

"For us, working with our partner to deploy our new platform was the obvious choice.

"We wanted to improve the customer experience across multiple markets, and with our partner's expertise, we have been able to implement best practice processes and increase personalisation.

"It has also helped us to utilise resources more efficiently, giving us the opportunity to innovate much faster," she said. 

Retail trade has suffered its worst-ever monthly decline, collapsing 17.9 per cent in April reflecting the darkest days of the COVID-19 shutdown.

The huge fall follows a record jump of 8.5 per cent in March following panic hoarding that could see March quarter GDP limp into positive territory. All figures are seasonally adjusted.

The latest preliminary figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics show the monthly collapse was worse than the 10.6 per cent fall in July 2000 when the GST was introduced.

The fall in retail trade in April was driven by the food retailing industry, which fell 17.1 per cent or $2.4 billion, following a 24.1 per cent rise in March.

Westpac and AMP Capital economists expected a fall of 15 per cent for the month of April. CBA expected an 11 per cent fall while NAB forecast a 7 per cent drop and ANZ a 5 per cent decline.

Supermarket and grocery store scanner data collected by the ABS showed monthly retail turnover for non-perishable goods fell 23.7 per cent after having risen 39 per cent during the March hoarding.

Turnover in perishable goods fell 15.3 per cent in April after having risen 21.6 per cent in March, while turnover of all other products plunged 24.5 per cent after a 30.5 per cent rise in March.

There were falls across all sectors including cafes, restaurants and takeaway food services as well as clothing, footwear and personal accessories retailing.

Businesses reported that regulations regarding social distancing measures limited their ability to trade as normal "for the entire month", ABS said.

While the preliminary figures show a collapse in spending, the CBA and ANZ credit and debit card published this week show a strong rebound in spending as COVID-19 restrictions start to ease.

BIS Oxford Economics chief economist Sarah Hunter noted that while there was a huge fall off in food retailing because people were no longer stockpiling, spending was still up on the same time last year.

"The unwinding of stockpiling spending meant that food retailing was the main driver of the decline, but spending is still up 5 per cent year on year, confirmation that the shift to working from home for almost half the population has resulted in a significant increase in spending in the supermarkets," Dr Hunter said.

"Given the improving health outcomes, improving consumer confidence, and relaxation of restrictions, spending is likely to rebound in May," she said, "And although the outlook is still uncertain, if this trend continues there is some near-term upside risk to the Treasury and RBA projections for a 10 per cent fall in output in the first half of the year."

The Reserve Bank has forecast that household consumption – one of the key indicators of the shape of economic recovery – will contract 15 per cent by June, while year-end consumption will be 9 per cent down.

A key part of this consumption forecast will rely on jobs and wages. The latest payroll data from the ABS and Australian Taxation Office showed that in the seven weeks from mid-March to early May, about 950,000 jobs had been lost.

The boss of electronics and furniture retailer Harvey Norman says the group's 30 stores in New Zealand expect a sales bump from May 14 when retail across the board can reopen after lockdown laws there were relaxed further.

Harvey Norman is among a string of trans-Tasman retailers including outdoor clothing chain Kathmandu, electronics group JB Hi-Fi and fashion retailer Premier Investments legally able to open physical stores again from Thursday, after announcements on Monday by NZ Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.

Cue Clothing Co. has shown its family-owned colours as it battles the fallout from COVID-19.

The company - which owns Cue, Veronika Maine and Dion Lee - is among retailers consolidating costs amid the global pandemic.

However, the family-owned company has attempted to support its network of local manufacturers and staff during lockdowns in Australia and New Zealand. 

Cue’s onshore network allows it to produce new styles in as little as three to five weeks. 

Director Justin Levis said while volumes of local orders have been reduced, it is mindful of supporting production partners.

"One of the advantages of local production is flexibility and agility to support smaller runs," he told Ragtrader.com.au.

"With the pandemic, we were able to shrink orders immediately and save lighter fabrics to be recut in spring/summer, for example. 

"We know this affects our entire supply chain and we need to support factories with cashflow so they can survive this; where makers used to make 10,000 garments a month, we might reduce that number to 3,000 to keep everyone producing.

"We have triple the product right now but the way forward is to support our partners with cashflow."  

Cue Clothing Co. is also supporting efforts to connect hospitals and manufacturers to produce PPE at cost price. 

The retailer was among the first to produce medical gowns and masks for St. Vincent's Hospital. 

"A local supply chain can produce scrubs more quickly when it's made onshore," Levis said.

Despite retailers enduring revenue falls - particularly in New Zealand during lockdowns of eCommerce and bricks-and-mortar operations - it has attempted to mitigate costs with government programs such as Job Keeper. 

This is as Australian and New Zealand fashion retailers battle iron-clad lease clauses with some landlords, forcing full rental payments. 

Levis cited examples of managers connecting with loyal customers via Skype and phone calls, offering existing customers new season styles via private appointments. 

"I've been so inspired by our staff through all of this. 

"We had an amazing day in our Canberra store recently; the manager has such a good connection with her customers and was able to keep them updated with offers on new season styles.

"We're starting to trial store openings with limited hours and seeing how our customers react."

Cue Clothing Co. is one of the most iconic fashion retailers in Australia, with founder Rod Levis recently awarded a Member of The Order of Australia. 

Myer is reopening more stores in Australia after closures brought on by the coronavirus pandemic.

The retailer had initially reopened seven ‘trial’ stores last week, including ones in Carindale, North Lakes and Townsville.

From Saturday, Myer is reopening eight more stores – 5 in New South Wales, 2 in Western Australia and 1 in South Australia. In New South Wales, these include the Miranda, Erine, Wagga Wagga, Albury and Dubbo stores. In South Australia, it’s the store in the Tea Tree Plaza and in WA, the Morley and Garden City stores.

Myer has rolled out safety measures to protect staff and customers including more cleaning of its stores, using sneeze guards at registers, providing hand sanitiser and encouraging contactless payments instead of cash. It is also suspending shoe, suit and intimate apparel fittings as well as beauty appointments.

“We look forward to welcoming more team members back to work, and more customers back to their favourite department store, where we have taken extra precautions to ensure Myer has a safe and hygienic shopping environment for all,” a Myer spokesperson said in a statement.

Myer had announced the temporary closure of all its stores in March and stood down around 10,000 workers. Its online business still continued, with demand rising so much – especially during Easter – that the company was able to rehire 2,000 employees to help with online fulfilment orders.

Myer isn’t the only retailer reopening its doors.

Premier Investments, the parent company of brands including Peter Alexander, Just Jeans and Jay Jays is reopening its stores from Friday May 15. The stores will reopen across New South Wales, Victoria, Western Australia, South Australia, Australian Capital Territory and Tasmania, expect for locations in airports and some CBD areas.

The benchmark Eastern Market Indicator, which measures the price in cents of clean wool a kilogram, this month hit its lowest point in five years in Australian dollar terms and the lowest in a decade in US dollar terms.

It currently sits at 1170¢ a kilogram, 382¢ less than the March price and 790¢ less than this time last year.

Mr Harrison said there was no danger of stockpiles building up to those levels with the national flock down to about 60 million compared with 180 million in the early 1990s.

However, he said a prolonged downturn in prices would see farmers drop out and turn to meat sheep breeds, cattle or cropping.

Australian Wool Network wool broker Russell Macgugan said producers have "absolutely" been weighing up their options as to whether hold or sell bales.

There were only 23,371 bales offered on the market on Thursday, compared with a peak of 62,166 on March 6.

Wool markets across the country are also reducing the number of days they sell in the week as the number of bales on offer declines.

Forecasting by the Australian Wool Exchange suggests this will continue, as it anticipates a drop of 13-16 per cent on previous estimates for bales on offer for the remainder of May.

Luxury item

"It's a luxury item, you look at wheat or barley and they're a food necessity and they've got a shelf life. For farmers growing wool and those processing it, they can shut down tomorrow and sit on the product," Mr Macgugan said.

"It's not as big of a rush to pull the trigger on selling it ... but it's a catch-22 [situation], because you don't know what the price could sink to.

"So we've said from the start that you either need to be committed to not selling for 6-12 months or you need to sell it now because there's no short-term upside coming. I can't say there's even going to be a major upside in the wool market in the next 12-18 months."

Ms Hall said the stockpiling suggested an eventual glut in supply even if demand rebounded, but noted production was low after the drought and the big drop in the national flock.

“We know that with the declining market growers are either not putting it up for sale or they are passing it in or withdrawing it from sale,” she said.

Ms Hall said the wool industry thought it had dodged a bullet when Chinese mills re-opened around February 10.

“We were thinking as an industry we had got out of COVID relatively well because we had managed to continue trade with our biggest customer, China,” she said.

“We didn’t know what was around the corner.”

Mutton and lamb prices have held up well in some consolation for farmers.

Mr Macgugan said reports from Europe suggested wool that would normally go to virus-hit Italy was being diverted to Romania and Egypt for processing.

Matt Blatt is trading again under its new owner Kogan.com, which has acquired the intellectual property and goodwill of the replica furniture business for $4.4 million.

The acquisition will serve as a “springboard” for the online retailer to expand into the furniture and homewares market, according to a statement Kogan.com released to the ASX on Friday.

“We are pleased to bring the iconic Matt Blatt brand into new ownership, and relaunch the business as an online-only offering,” Ruslan Kogan, CEO of Kogan.com, said in the statement.

Kogan said he plans to combine his company’s technology, systems and infrastructure with Matt Blatt’s decades of industry experience to deliver a market-leading offer.

“We look forward to serving and delighting furniture and design lovers all over Australia,” he said.

Matt Blatt is well known for its replica mid-century modern furniture and homewares, which it sold through 12 bricks-and-mortar showrooms as well as online.

But in late March, the company closed its stores and website and stood down staff due to the impact of tightened social distancing restrictions on sales, and Matt Blatt founder Adam Drexler suggested the closure could become permanent.

“We can’t see our way clear to just hibernate and open up again,” Drexler told Inside Retail in early April.

At the time, Drexler said he was fielding acquisition offers, but he also acknowledged the possibility of shutting down permanently, rather than try to eke out a profit in a depressed economy after restrictions lift.

“I personally believe that things won’t return to normal. There will be a big recession for many years, and that’s when a lot of companies will struggle,” Drexler said.

According to documents lodged with the corporate regulator, Matt Blatt’s revenue in FY19 was $46.5 million, with 20-25 per cent of this occurring online.

Plumbing and bathroom renovations group Reece has elevated outsiders in an executive reshuffle but the Wilson family remains in firm control of the company, which raised $600 million in early April to bolster its balance sheet.

The capital raising resulted in the Wilson family reducing its holding in the ASX-listed group from 73 per cent to 68 per cent even though it subscribed for $170 million in extra shares at $7.60 per share during the raising.

Reece, which runs 630 outlets in Australia that sell plumbing supplies and bathroom fixtures and fittings, made a big foray into the United States in 2018 with the $1.9 billion acquisition of MORSCO.

The company announced on Monday that long-serving chief financial officer Gavin Street would become chief executive of Reece's Australian and New Zealand operations from July 1.

It has also hired Andrew Cowlishaw, who had been running EY's mergers and acquisitions operations in Melbourne for the past nine years, as chief financial officer.

Mr Cowlishaw was central in Reece's acquisition of the Actrol business in 2014 and the MORSCO acquisition in 2018.

Reece chief executive Peter Wilson said on Monday that the company was focused on building its US operations and on strengthening the digital ''ecosystem'' of its Australasian operations.

"We have a clear strategy and blueprint for the future,'' he said.

Essential sector

Reece, which has a workforce of 7800, already has in place Sasha Nikolic as the chief executive of the US operations. Similar to Australia, the plumbing industry in the US has been deemed an essential sector amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Mr Street had been chief financial officer at Reece since 2008 and had previously worked at Westpac and GE Finance.

Reece was founded in 1920 just after the Spanish flu pandemic, which is being used as something of a measuring stick as health experts, governments and investors wrestle with the impacts and strategies to try to control a new global pandemic a century later.

The company's shares trade around $8.20, about 8 per cent above the price of the capital raising in early April.

The stock was at $11.90 in late February before the coronavirus-induced sharemarket sell-off.

In other changes announced by Reece on Monday, Chantelle Duffy has been appointed as company secretary from July 1.

Early steps to ease the pandemic shutdown along with the new coronavirus supplement paid to those receiving unemployment benefits has helped buoy spending across the economy.

Overall spending was 7 per cent below the pre-pandemic norm in the week of April 27-May 4, but that was a significant improvement on the previous week which was down by 20 per cent, the worst result since the onset of the COVID-19 outbreak.

A real-time spending tracker developed by analytics firm AlphaBeta, part of Accenture, and credit bureau illion, shows the $550-per-fortnight coronavirus supplement which kicked in from April 27 delivered a vital economic boost.

It follows a one-off $750 federal stimulus distributed to all social security recipients early last month.

Those who received both payments spent 28 per cent more than normal last week while those who received neither spent 15 per cent less than normal.

The number of unemployed receiving JobSeeker, previously called the Newstart Allowance, reached 1.3 million at the end of April having increased by around half a million since the onset of the crisis.

The supplement, which effectively doubles JobSeeker, will apply for the next six months at a cost of $14.1 billion.

There are also steps to ease restrictions on movement and socialising that have encouraged additional economic activity.

Improved mobility meant spending on toll roads was 9 per cent higher than the previous week while taxi and rideshare spending was up 6 per cent.

The tracker, which draws on a database tracing the consumption patterns of hundreds of thousands of consumers and businesses, showed health-related spending was 9 per cent higher than the previous week as more people attended appointments at allied health services, such as physios.

Spending at cafes also improved although it remains 46 per cent below normal.

A boom in food delivery triggered by the shutdown continued with spending 213 per cent above normal in the week of April 27-May 4.

Demand was also very strong for online gambling, home improvement, office furniture and pet care.

Simon Bligh, the chief executive of illion, said the easing of restrictions had given consumers more confidence.

“As we see restrictions further easing over the next few weeks, we believe there will be greater spending across discretionary and entertainment categories,” he said.

“Higher income people will also start to open their wallets for more discretionary items – something they have not been doing over the last few weeks.”

AlphaBeta director, economist Andrew Charlton, said the results underscored the crucial role government stimulus payments have played in supporting the economy.

“The government can see in real-time how impactful its coronavirus supplement has been, helping low income earners increase their discretionary spending,” he said.

In addition to JobSeeker recipients, the supplement is being paid to those receiving the Partner Allowance, Widow Allowance, Sickness Allowance, Youth Allowance, Austudy, ABSTUDY Living Allowance, Parenting Payment, Farm Household Allowance and the Special Benefit.

Dr Charlton said spending patterns during the crisis had underscored the value of targeting government stimulus payments to lower income earners because they are most likely to boost activity by spending the money, rather than saving it.

The Reject Shop, whose 356 stores have stayed open for the past few weeks while many other retailers shut temporarily, is planning for at least another six months of stringent customer spacing, screens and in-store sanitising.

The chief executive of the value retailer, Andre Reich, said the group was planning several strategies depending on how the COVID-19 pandemic played out in Australia. But he expected the store protocols the company had implemented more than two months ago would still be in place towards the end of the year.

New York | Neiman Marcus Group filed for bankruptcy protection, marking one of the highest-profile collapses yet among retailers forced to temporarily close stores in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The US luxury department store chain filed for bankruptcy in a federal court in Houston, and said it had reached agreement with creditors for $US675 million ($1 billion) of debtor-in-possession financing to aid operations while it attempts to reorganise.

The Dallas-based retailer plans to cede control to creditors in exchange for eliminating $US4 billion of debt. Its debt currently totals about $US5 billion. Reuters earlier reported that the company was preparing to file for bankruptcy within days.

The company expects to emerge from Chapter 11 proceedings in early fall with a $US750 million package from creditors that provided its initial bankruptcy loan.

Neiman Marcus, laden with debt after a private equity takeover, reached a deal with creditors for more financial breathing room last year that avoided a bankruptcy filing but succumbed in recent weeks to government orders that closed businesses deemed non-essential to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus.

The pandemic is inflicting widespread financial pain on retailers forced to temporarily close stores. J. Crew Group filed for bankruptcy protection on Monday. J.C. Penney is contemplating a bankruptcy filing of its own as a way to rework its unsustainable finances, Reuters previously reported. Nordstrom recently moved to borrow against some of its real estate.

"Like most businesses today, we are facing unprecedented disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has placed inexorable pressure on our business," Neiman's chief executive officer Geoffroy van Raemdonck said.

The nearly 113-year-old company in March furloughed many of its roughly 14,000 employees and temporarily closed all its 43 Neiman stores, two Bergdorf Goodman locations in New York and roughly two dozen Last Call stores.

The stores will remain closed through the end of this month, the company said. In addition to lenders, the company owes money to vendors such as Chanel, Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent, according to court records.

Founded in 1907 when the Marcus and Neiman families opened their first store in Dallas, the retailer expanded across the United States to become a fashion mainstay for celebrities and other wealthy customers seeking expensive handbags, clothing and the like.

The founders started the company after considering and passing on an investment in a then-unknown soft drink called Coca-Cola, according to the company's website. It added Bergdorf Goodman, itself founded around the turn of the 20th century, to its ranks in the 1970s.

Neiman Marcus changed hands among private equity firms over the past 15 years, eventually being sold in 2013 to Ares Management Corp and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board in a $US6 billion debt-fuelled buyout.

Like other brick-and-mortar department store operators, Neiman Marcus struggled in recent years to compete with discount retail chains and a consumer shift to online shopping. Luxury e-commerce firms such as Yoox Net-A-Porter Group (YNAP) and Farfetch added to its competition.

The pressures caused Neiman Marcus to buckle under its heavy debt load, which included increased interest expenses resulting from its out-of-court restructuring last year.

Prolonged store closures due to the coronavirus outbreak choked off sales and sealed Neiman Marcus's fate. It skipped debt payments in April, including one that only gave the company a five-day grace period to make good before defaulting.

Saks Fifth Avenue owner Hudson's Bay Co explored a bid for Neiman Marcus in 2017 but did not pursue it, people familiar with the matter said at the time. The companies have held on-again-off-again discussions about a possible tie-up that had not advanced to serious stages in recent weeks, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Hudson's Bay, a Canadian company, was taken private earlier this year by a group of shareholders led by its chief executive, Richard Baker, and it is unclear if it remains interested or would be in a position to pursue a new bid.

Dymocks appoints new MD

Former Oroton CEO Mark Newman (pictured) has been appointed managing director for heritage bookshop chain Dymocks’ retail and children’s charities arms, effective immediately.

 An executive with over 25 years’ experience in the retail industry globally, Newman worked with clothing brand Hackett London and luxury goods purveyor Richemont before taking the role of vice president of Ralph Lauren Australia and New Zealand in 2010.

 He was appointed CEO of Oroton Group in 2013, and oversaw the Oroton Brand, the launch of Brooks Brothers and the franchise of Gap.

Newman also worked at Noni B Group as executive general manager of contemporary brands, before working as a consultant to the industry at Sincerely and Moseley & Co.

 The Dymocks Charities arm in the 2019 financial year provided more than 45,000 books to some 40,000 children across Australia. It is currently focused on helping children impacted by COVID-19.

Dymocks’ former MD Steve Cox departed in February to head up Destination NSW.

New CFO, directors for Reject Shop

Discount chain The Reject Shop has appointed Clinton Cahn (pictured) as CFO, effective immediately.

Cahn joined the company in March as head of strategy. Previously he spent almost five years at Crown Resorts, ending up as manager of strategy and business development. Before Crown, he held positions with TPG Capital and UBS Investment Bank.

The company has also announced the appointment of two new non-executive directors, David Grant and Nick Perkins, also effective immediately.

Grant is a chartered accountant who had previous executive roles with Goodman Fielder and Iluka Resources. He sits on a number of boards as a non-executive director, including Retail Food Group and the Murray Goulburn Cooperative.

Perkins is a director of major Reject Group shareholder Allensford as well as the managing director and general counsel of Kin Group.

Another non-executive director, Zachary Midalia, has resigned.