(SINGAPORE) As the Great Singapore Sale (May 23 - July 20) starts to draw to a close, figures reveal that sales are seeing some growth.
However, some retailers say that they've had to woo customers who are showing more restraint this year by holding out for better buys.
Still, this doesn't come as a complete surprise to those in the industry.
'Last year was fantastic but this is difficult to maintain, particularly so because of the change in the economic outlook. Last year was wonderfully promising where the economy was concerned,' said executive director of the Singapore Retailers Association (SRA), Lau Chuen Wei.
The top line figures are there but 'we don't know about the bottom line yet, especially as costs have been rising phenomenally. Sales also vary on sectors', Ms Lau added.
So while retailers have indicated that sales are coming in, they've also had to pull out all the stops to get them.
Wing Tai Retail, which has a portfolio of 17 brands such as G2000, Karen Millen and Topshop, says that there were ups and downs across the different brands culminating in a single-digit growth.
'This year is not very fantastic. Last year, people were anxiously shopping. Now, people are waiting for the best discounts. We see a lot of brands having to offer sharper discounts in order to match up to last year,' explained executive director of Wing Tai Retail, Helen Khoo, who added that some of their brands had to follow suit.
Retailers in Wisma Atria, for instance, have offered discounts of up to 70 per cent.
Founder and general manager of home-grown fashion label bYSI Tan Yew Kiat said bYSI saw 'a growth in sales but it wasn't as significant as last year'.
He reckoned that sales grew by about 10 per cent, although this was half of the revenue growth last year. bYSI, which has 12 stores in Singapore, saw the strongest demand for its outlets that are located in the city.
For Wisma Atria, centre-wide performance was 'encouraging' with an increase of over 4 per cent in May over the same period last year.
However, it was the fashion retailers in the mall that really scored with 'some reporting year-on-year sales growth of up to almost 50 per cent', said Amy Lim, general manager, Macquarie Pacific Star Property Management.
Promotions and extended shopping hours were also other strategies employed to attract more customers. Wisma Atria launched a shopper loyalty programme - Who's Who - that allows shoppers to convert their spending into points to redeem for rewards.
For jeweller Poh Heng, sales for this year's GSS have remained in line with last year's, the company revealed. Its sales period spans the entire GSS period.
A previously released report by MasterCard shows that the first weekend of the GSS (May 23-25) got off to a strong start, raking in some US$37.2 million of sales, up nearly 25 per cent from US$29.9 million in 2007.
According to the SRA, apparel did particularly well in the first two weeks of the GSS although sales wound down across the board as the GSS wore on, as per normal.
But with another two weeks or so to go before the GSS wraps up for real, some retailers are still holding out for a happier ending.
'Poh Heng expects sales to pick up further as GSS continues,' asserted Chng Hwee Siang, director of Poh Heng Jewellery.
This article was first published in The Business Times on 5 July 2008.
