The impact of the Federal election has had a substantial negative impact on retail spending in the last week.

Theories on whether elections have an impact on retail spending have been unsubstantiated in the past, however, the Retail Express Australian Retail Index presents a clear reduction in consumer confidence

Across the country, retails sales dropped 14 per cent across Fashion, Furniture, Sporting and General sectors; with Fashion the hardest hit losing 30 per cent compared with sales in the prior week.

The same period compared with last year saw a drop of 13 per cent overall and when comparing the last four weeks with the same period last year, again, we see an average drop of almost 2 per cent across all sectors.

New South Wales and Victoria look similar in their reaction to Australia’s pending leadership with all sectors dropping except Sporting which showed an increase of 24 per cent and 5 per cent respectively.

Retailers are worried as this news comes atop a period of time where retailer across the country have felt the negative impact of a late winter and slow winter sales.

“Healthy retailers will weather the storm however it’s important that retailers have effective strategies in place to manage these kinds of downturns,” said Aaron Blackman, CEO of Retail Express.

“Having said that, we’re forecasting a strong bounce back in the weeks to come. Winter sales are now in full swing and with the likelihood of liberals back in power along with positive news of company tax rate cuts, we expect a positive movement in the coming weeks and months ahead, all the way through to Christmas.”

By Aaron Blackman, CEO of Retail Express. Data sourced from the Australian Retail Index.