Retailers are feeling less confident about their future with increasing costs and falling foot traffic.
An empty street in Christchurch during the alert level 4 lockdown in 2020 (file image). Photo: RNZ / Nate McKinnon
A recent survey by Retail New Zealand found 37 percent of retailers were not confident or unsure whether they would still be in business in 12 months' time.
Despite the uncertainty, retailers expected to order about 11 percent more containers of goods in 2021 than in 2020, despite large increases in the cost of sea and airfreight and severe congestion at the Ports of Auckland.
Retail New Zealand chief executive Greg Harford said freight costs had more than doubled in the past year, which had come on top of rising domestic costs.
"It is not sustainable for retailers to absorb these cost increases, and they will flow through to the price of consumer and business goods over the next year," Harford said.
The survey also found 49 percent of retailers were felling less satisfied or very unsatisfied with the government's response to the pandemic, compared with 37 percent in August.
"Most retailers are simply wanting more certainty about the future and, while this is difficult during a global pandemic, any efforts by government to provide certainty and predictability would be appreciated by the business community," Harford said.