Microeconomic Analysis Report: Sales Trends in Australian Retail Trade

This report provides a microeconomic analysis of the Australian retail trade industry, focusing on sales trends between 2017 and 2018. The analysis begins with an overview of the Australian economy, highlighting the importance of the retail sector. The report then delves into the sales data for 2017 and 2018, presenting the monthly sales trends through various figures. The data reveals fluctuations in sales, with peaks and valleys throughout the years. Comparisons are made between the two years, showing overall sales improvements in 2018 compared to 2017. The report examines the performance of the retail industry, providing insights into market dynamics and potential investment considerations. The report references several sources to support its findings.

Running head: MICROECONOMIC ANALYSIS
Microeconomic Analysis
Name of the University
Name of the Student
Author Note

1MICROECONOMIC ANALYSIS
Table of Contents
Answer a..........................................................................................................................................2
Answer b..........................................................................................................................................2
References........................................................................................................................................6

2MICROECONOMIC ANALYSIS
Answer a
After Switzerland, Australia is the second greatest economy of the world regarding
average wealth owned per adult. It has the biggest mixed market (dual economy) accounting a
total GDP (Gross Domestic Product) of about Australian $1.69 trillion in 2017. Several
Australian industries have played key role in making the country a leading and top most
economy. The major industries include Service Industry, Retail Industry, Tourism Industry,
Healthcare Industry, Media and Entertainment Industry, Finance Industry, Mining Industry and
other industries. Among all these significant Australian Industries, the Retail Trade Industry of
Australia is chosen for framing the report as asked by the manager for his investment decision as
it covers almost 34% of the total industry distribution percentage of Australia (Price 2016).
There exists around 140 thousand retail business covering 4.1% of GDP and generating 10.7% of
total employment (Sutton-Brady, Kamvounias and Taylor 2015). The top 10 retail companies of
the country include Aldi, Big W, Bunning Warehouse, Chemist Warehouse, Cotton On, Dan
Murphy’s, David Jones, EB Games, Harvey Norman and IKEA (retail.org.au. 2019). The retail
industry of the country has undergone a huge number of competitive challenges in the past. The
online retailing as well as the entrance of the new innovative global retailers are simply the
latest. The Australian retail industry exhibits a great diversity in terms of the nature of the
products sold, business size, retail format, and level of competition within the sector and so on.
Hence, the Australian retail trade industry is selected for preparing the given analytical report.
Answer b
In order to analyze the sales trends of the Australian retail trade industry, the sales related
data of the industry for years 2017 and 2018 are considered. First the analysis of the monthly

3MICROECONOMIC ANALYSIS
sales trend of year 2017 is done followed by the interpretation the monthly trend of year 2018.
The figure below shows the Sales trend of year 2017.
Figure 1: Sales trends of year 2017
Source: (aer.gov.au 2019)
The above bar diagram shows that the sales of the retail industry reached its top in the
month of May but falls to a great extent during September. The sales is quite good during the
months of January and April - July which is above 3 units. During the months of February,
March and August - December the sales has diminished, leading to only 1.554 unit in September.
The graph below shows the sales trends of year 2018.
Figure 2: Sales trends of year 2018
Source: (aer.gov.au 2019)

4MICROECONOMIC ANALYSIS
The graph illustrates that the trend has reached its highest on September and became lowest on
January. The sales is above 3 units during March, August, September and October and below 3
units during January, February, April- July and November- December.
Figure 3: Combined sales trends of year 2017-2018
Source: (aer.gov.au 2019)
The above column diagram depicts that in September, 2017 the sales was the lowest but in the
very next year the sales had reached its top on September.
Figure 4: Combined sales trends of year 2017-2018
Source: (aer.gov.au 2019)

5MICROECONOMIC ANALYSIS
Figure 4 depicts that thought there is ups and downs observed in the sales trend of 2017
but in 2018 such irregularities are reduced.
Figure 5: Retail Industry Sales 2017-2018
Source: (aer.gov.au 2019)
The above diagram ensures that the overall sales had incremented in the year 2018 compared to
the year 2017. Hence, the sales had been improved in the 2018 for Australian retail industry.

6MICROECONOMIC ANALYSIS
References
aer.gov.au 2019. Annual Report on Compliance and Performance of the Retail Energy Market
2017-18. [online] Australian Energy Regulator. Available at: https://www.aer.gov.au/retail-
markets/performance-reporting/annual-report-on-compliance-and-performance-of-the-retail-
energy-market-2017-18 [Accessed 3 Sep. 2019].
Price, R. 2016. Controlling routine front line service workers: An Australian retail supermarket
case. Work, employment and society, 30(6), pp.915-931.
retail.org.au. 2019. TOP 20 RETAILERS SHORTLISTED FOR AUSTRALIAN RETAIL AWARDS
- Australian Retailers Association. [online] Australian Retailers Association. Available at:
https://www.retail.org.au/mediacentre/top-20-retailers-shortlisted-australian-retail-awards/
[Accessed 3 Sep. 2019].
Sutton-Brady, C., Kamvounias, P. and Taylor, T. 2015. A model of supplier–retailer power
asymmetry in the Australian retail industry. Industrial marketing management, 51, pp.122-130.