Regarding retailers, I wonder also if investors do not put too much focus on demand and not enough on the supply side. Even if it is difficult to get figures about the floor space growth in Australia, I suspect that it has slowed for different reasons : - much less store openings by leading listed groups, - a high level of bankrupcies among retailers (ex. + 46 % yoy for retail insolvencies in April 24).
Another element about supply is about the competition from e-commerce. While there were legitimate concerns initially that e-commerce was going to create a lot of competition for brick and mortar groups, this is less the case than expected. One of the reasons is the low margin for a lot of e-commerce groups which limit their ability to put a lot of price pressure.
