Marketing and financial experts say a decrease in retail spending can be linked to the cost of living crisis and its psychological effects on consumers.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics has released a report on the decrease in retail shopping with consumers spending less money on clothing, footwear, and personal accessories.

The report states retail spending from February to March decreased by 9.2 per cent.

University of Western Australia finance professor Raymond da Silva Rosa says the decline is significant.

“Undoubtedly with the cost of living and inflationary pressures, people are now having to spend more of their disposable income on rentals,” he says.

Professor da Silva Rosa says people are also moving towards cheaper retail shopping methods, from fast fashion sites like Shein or second-hand shops.

“In-person retail shopping is also an experience people are missing, and so the appeal of retail shopping has declined.”

Deakin University chair of consumer behaviour Paul Harrison says the cost of living crisis is a broad term.

“The evidence would be that for some people, there is a cost of living crisis, but that has always been there for them, but I think it comes down to what we might call the necessities,” he says.

“We can see an increase in the pricing of the necessities, but also acknowledge that people are spending a lot of money in other places and that’s often the people who maybe don’t necessarily feel this kind of cost of living crisis as much. And it’s not spread evenly across the population.”

Dr Harrison says the media’s portrayal of the cost of living crisis also has an impact on the reality of consumer behaviours.

“To some degree, what we’re pointing towards is figures that say people have decreased their spending, but we can’t say that it’s because of cost of living, it could actually be because they’re worried that if they keep spending, then they’ll be in difficulty, so it’s kind of like a lag effect to the spending patterns of people,” he says.

The Secret Closet owner Paula Artley says her sales are at a steady increase with more people looking for more sustainable ways of spending.

Her store has a collection of pre-owned designer fashion, footwear, and accessories.

She says the business curates shopping experiences to make it more appealing to consumers.