2016 was a horror year for retailers with 2017 shaping up to be a shocker

This year has seen the closure of Masters and Dick Smith Electronics, but 2017 isn’t looking to be much better. Already Payless Shoes, Howards Storage World, and kid’s clothing store Pumpkin Patch have announced they won’t make it to the end of the current financial year. Experts are now saying that this will only be the start of the list unless something is done.

While the Federal Government and Treasurer Scott Morrison would like to think their new tax reform plan is going to save the day, there are a lot of experts saying that the problem is much bigger than that. The country is already facing a recession heading into the new year, but the blame might have to be on the businesses that failed. Experts point to their failures as a way to tell other businesses what not to do.

One example is that Howard’s Storage World offered high-end storage solutions but didn’t enter into a competitive market when stores like Aldi were offering cheaper products instead tried to keep pushing products no one wanted to buy. One shopper posted on their Facebook page after they announced they were closing “I have more and better things to spend my money on than a $129 shower bottles holder”.

If you look at the Aldi model, who have had a great 2016, they keep their prices low, offer products that the clients want, and when that want changes they bring in new products.

Retail expert Barry Urquhart from Marketing Focus told news.com.au, “Consumers are saying, ‘tell me what’s, new, innovative creative and exciting’, and they can’t see it on the business landscape,”. He added, “There has been a lack of imagination, a decided lack or absence of new product. That is one of the reasons why this Christmas is going to be a very flat, uninteresting situation. It is relatively dull, boring, repetitive — and that is not the sort of thing that will capture the imagination or stimulate the emotion.”

Have certain stores or brands disenfranchised you over the past year? How have you seen the retail landscape change?