Retail
Sydney is Australia's premier retail destination, and Sydney's retail experience in the city centre is a key attribute of our global city status.
Why we’re doing this
Sydney is Australia's premier retail destination, and Sydney's retail experience in the city centre is a key attribute of our global city status. The retail sector is also the foundation of our village main streets that attracts many visitors to the City of Sydney.
It represents more than 7,800 businesses from approximately 21,500 within the City of Sydney and it is a major employer that makes an important contribution to the local economy.
In 2012, retail-related businesses made up 36% of all businesses in the local area employing 66,169 workers, representing 15.14% of our workforce – compared to the national average of 10.7%.
It is a diverse industry that ranges from department stores and major shopping complexes through to regular market stallholders and pop-up stores around the local area.
Businesses in the retail sector may be defined according to the market segment they target from high-end, mid-range, niche and tourist retail to hospitality businesses and retailers meeting the day-to-day needs of residents, workers and visitors to the City.
Action areas
- The Sydney Business Chamber approached us in 2010 – on behalf of a working group of key Sydney retailers – to take a leadership role by forming a retail advisory panel.
- The panel's aim is to bring together the retail industry, the state government and the City of Sydney, to work on issues of common interest, provide strategic advice, identify and create opportunities for retailers to integrate better with Destination NSW and Business Events Sydney.
- Our role with the retail sector is to focus on enhancing the experience of shoppers through investing in high-quality public places and infrastructure.
- Our aim is to remove barriers for business, share information and to help businesses to work together, such as the snapshots of our programs in the next column.
- We also deliver programs and services to build skills, resilience and expertise so that small business operators are better equipped to remain commercially viable and sustainable.
- The challenges facing the sector affect the traditional ‘bricks and mortar’ retailers, large and small, and point to the need for strategies and action plans to enhance their competitiveness in an era of ever-increasing competition.
How we can achieve this
Our retail action plan has been developed to support local businesses and encourage new jobs in the sector.
The action plan outlines how the City of Sydney will work with industry and government partners over the next 10 years to help the sector develop and grow.
