Recent data released by illion would suggest that discretionary spending has trended upward alongside the announcement of the government stimulus packages and continued on a steeper curve than essentials, through March but has eased back during April, with spending on essentials being mostly driving retail figures.
Sales of musical instruments have carried on strongly for some through April following a huge March.
For music products retail it’s been business ‘unusual’ but brisk all the same for many retailers, depending on the category. Some categories faring better than others in the circumstances.
Preliminary figures from the Bureau of Statistics show retail turnover had its biggest monthly rise on record in March. Supermarket and grocery store sales rose 22.4 per cent, while sales of alcohol and home office supplies were also strong. This continued in April, but discretionary spending pulled back.
Economists expect a pullback in retail sales as stockpiling subsides and major retailers including Myer extend shutdowns.
Those who were set up well for e-commerce pre-Covid-19 are flourishing, those who lagged behind are learning quickly to get their online services up to scratch to deal with demand and the new trading conditions.
Australian Musician online has reported about music retail being open and doing business, and letting the consumer know. There’s plenty of positive messages coming out of the article from our member retailers. March was akin to Christmas for many retailers we have spoken to and April has continued on that way. Many dealers are naturally giving their focus to their online channels.
When posing the question of “what impacts do you think Self-isolation and social distancing will have on you?” Some interesting responses, were reported by illion too.
More time to do what I enjoy – 36% |Beneficial impacts from reading, creative pursuits, etc – 32% |
Increased opportunity to learn – 26% | all into these music making sits pretty well.
Acoustic piano specialist stores, while seeing more than double their usual digital piano sales, have seen un unprecedented drop-off in floor traffic. On her ABC interview Jenny Ko of Gospel Pianos said she was seeing only a couple of customers during the week at the moment. Online business in digitals had more than doubled, but not close to making up for lost acoustic sales.
Michael Cleves told us that his group of stores, which includes the Australian Piano Warehouses has seen a similar rush for home, with loads of digital pianos selling to go with some softness in the mid range upright acoustic piano market with Grand pianos holding up. “As always with acoustic pianos, you’ve got to do the extra.” “In general MI, entry level gear has been huge in March, we’ve been very busy at Billy Hydes (Vic) and Winston Music (SA) as well as in the Dale Cleves stores. “we are seeing a lot of product sold to new customers during this period, and that’s a positive”
It’s a similar story with Bernies Musicland in Ringwood, Victoria. “Acoustics are quieter but digital pianos are quite busy and portable organs too, the little Hammonds, we’ve been busy with those,” says store owner Bernie Capicchiano. “Most are looking for home entertainment, so we are getting comments like … we always wanted to have the time to play, now we do or we are locked up and need our music.”
Acoustics have seen significant disruption, which is traditional during times of uncertainty. Brass and woodwind sales have also hit the wall, with schools disrupted and complicated by the fact that these instruments cannot be tried out instore by those wanting to trade up or get themselves a better instrument. Fine Music’s Michael Jongebloed saying there was not much selling in his world, besides accessories and print. Michael was enthused however by the online Bands Festival he was doing online as reported last week.
Fears that people are bringing forward purchases they were planning to make down the track were countered with the numbers of new customers taking up music. One supplier saying “we up 300% on entry level guitars, drum kits are up too”. Entry level guitar and amp packs are also struggling to keep up with demand.
Some suppliers and retailers have seen drops in business levels sufficient to apply for JobKeeper wage subsidies despite all the talk of boom times. Although welcome, businesses have been burdened with a cash flow crisis as the lag time between receiving the credits and paying staff salaries widens.
Those dealers that have been working in the online space for while have been able to capitalise.
Macron Music invested its time wisely by improving its online service, not just for the current conditions for into the future. Anthony Ursino said. “Because it has been less busy instore, we have been able to catch up on things that we were putting in place anyway with our online service.”
So, with restrictions at Stage 3, retail has been able to operate. As have logistics. Supplying musical instruments has been somewhat of an essential service during a ‘lock down period’ judging by the level of business. We appear to be in a similar situation with the emergency as New Zealand with its businesses only opening again this week. It has been in complete shut down, but fortunately for our industry, we have been able to continue to trade.
Retailers report that the people issues are a big challenge, the safety of customers and staff. But those with well-developed online infrastructure prospered and so did stores with not such a good online infrastructure! They found ways. Home deliveries, kerb side click and collect, uber, etc!
Marcello Grassi, co-owner at Eastgate Music in Kew is taking the health advice very seriously.
Despite the increased measures to produce a safe environment for customers to shop in, almost universally people are shopping via phone or online and stores are doing whatever it takes to deliver the goods and keep their loyal lientele satisfied. “We do encourage online sales,” says Eastgate’s Marcello. “You are very welcome to call us and we can greet you outside, we can load your car. We can do whatever you want that is required. If you want us to wear mask and gloves, not a problem.”
Suppliers are now experiencing stock shortages, and retailers may be wondering where their sales may come from in the months to come, while supply gets back to normal. But to the end of April suppliers were reporting a big couple of months as people got their music needs stocked up.
“It wasn’t exactly panic buying” said Concept Music’s Graham Hoskins, but [there has been] a huge increase in demand for instruments like keyboards and guitars, even drums, where people are looking for something that’s going to help them get through the situation,” he said.
Craig Johnston too (Keyboard Corner/KC’s Rock Shop) has been one of those to be surprisingly busy and profitable over the March – April months. “Business in acoustic pianos was almost nothing for March but the last 3 weeks we have seen a return to normal sales levels, everywhere else has been way up” Craig said. “What I anticipated could have been the end of many businesses in the industry, mine included, has turned out to be a once in a lifetime opportunity”.
We can only trust that as schools return to some normal and protocols for contact and use of instruments that pent up demand returns in categories like band and orchestral.
The AMA is conducting industry surveys to establish a benchmark for the industry as of now and another in the coming months. Rob Walker said “without a lot of foresight in the current situation, if we take out temperature at the end of April and do it again in three months, we can get a perspective of what the impact has been and is likely to be in the future”.