Retailers have confirmed that supply of stock is an ongoing issue due to increasing demand for household goods, with televisions and small appliances topping the list.
Bi-Rite’s Hamza Hussein said while the group has reported record sell-through over the past few months – with the last quarter being the biggest growth quarter to date – back orders are at levels never seen before, particularly in televisions and small appliances.
“Consumers are understanding of the times and willing to either wait or find a substitute. This pain point is not just ours, but one we share with our trade partners who we are empathetic with and whose support we greatly appreciated in these interesting times,” he told Appliance Retailer.
Retravision’s Mike Jeffrey said stock supply has been challenging over the past few months and categories including coffee, bread makers and air fryers remain so.
“Like everyone else, our first reaction was that we would be closed, but we soon realised that would not be the case and that in fact a large part of our product range would be in high demand,” he said.
“We moved quickly and with help from our key suppliers put in place firm orders for key models to meet demand. We have been managing the process with our suppliers on a daily basis and while not perfect our stores still look full and we have been able to deliver a very positive result in the second quarter.”
Videopro’s Scott Govenlock said there were slim pickings for home theatre systems in June but there is now more consistent supply across most TVs and soundbars for July.
“However, large screen premium OLED and QLED TVs are still in high demand and short supply with customer lead times of several weeks.”
Leading Edge Group’s Charlie Davey said there has been an improvement of stock flows, however it is still not back to normal, especially for televisions, work from home related items and whitegoods.
“We are seeing strong sales conversions when the stock does get to our members, which has increased stock turns significantly. We have been grateful for the cooperation of most of our supply partners in working with us for collated orders and pre-awareness of stock flow and availability. Our members have been proactive with their planning to get access to the stock with early commitments. We do hope for continued improvement, but the trend of the COVID-19 virus is extremely unpredictable,” he said.