The price of clothing, footwear, furniture, textiles, appliances and cars is set to increase. Photo / 123RF
The price of clothing, footwear, furniture, textiles, appliances and cars is set to increase. Photo / 123RF
The cost of your ASOS order, buying your daily coffee, fruit and veggies and filling up on petrol is set to increase.
According to Retail NZ's latest Retail Radar survey, 32 per cent of retailers are expecting their prices to increase in the next three months.
"There are cost pressuresacross the board, it's pretty much everything that is likely to be impacted," Greg Harford, Retail NZ general manager of public affairs, said.
Fuel prices, and therefore freight and transport costs, the increase to minimum wage and rising property prices are expected to push up the cost of goods.
"Things are costing more to get to New Zealand," Harford said.
"If there continues to be uncertainty in international oil pricing, there have been signals that will flow through to the price of airfares and it's reasonable to assume that will flow through to the pricing of online deliveries as well."
He said the 75 cents hike to minimum wage would impact retail prices.
"People who are picking fruit and vegetables will be paid more and that will have flow-on consequences right through into the price of food," he said.
"There's a bit of a squeeze on prices in retail... Prices are continuing to go up, there are a whole lot of factors, and when there are cost pressures then at some point over the short to medium term you can expect that to flow through to retail pricing."
RCG associate director Andy Florkowski said increases would impact online goods such as books, stationery, clothing and fashion accessories.
"I don't foresee there is going to be a huge spike in prices but what I do think is that local retailers are going to start to make up some of the margins they've been losing over the last couple of years due to GST loophole." Florkowski said.
"By retailers starting to increase some of these prices, I think it's going to be part and parcel of the level playing field because the online GST loop has been closed so they won't be competing purely in price just to be within the market."
Increases in the rental market would also push up the cost of consumer goods, he said.
"Landlords have been pumping huge amounts of money at the moment both into regional centres and central city re-establishments so we're seeing a real hesitation from retailers at the moment to sign up to these sites because of the huge rentals, and we really feel that's going to start flowing through with their product as well."
The price of fuel has increased by more than $1 recently. Photo / Dean Purcell
BNZ senior economist Doug Steel said a weak dollar often pushed up the price of imported goods.
"There are so many factors influencing pricing, generally, including in the retail sector so certainly some things suggest prices will start to push higher," Steel said.
"The New Zealand dollar has generally been lower over the last year of so and when that happens it tends to push up the price of imported goods... the likes of clothing, footwear, furniture, textiles, appliances and cars."
The New Zealand dollar has generally been lower over the last year or so and when that happens it tends to push up the price of imported goods.
Steel said the sector had yet to see the full impact of cost pressures.
"The labour market is certainly tightening but we haven't yet seen much wage pressure in general but we do have the likes of the minimum wage coming through, and we're already seeing some signs of that pushing up retail prices."
The price of takeaways and those offered in restaurants had increased significantly in the last two months, largely due to the increase in minimum wage, Steel said.
The retail sector is facing a string of cost pressures. Photo / Getty Images
"Another general upwards influence on prices will be rising fuel costs. We've seen a big increase in the international price of oil and that's come through to the price at the pump domestically... and that's having indirect costs on retailers," he said.
"We think there's some upward pressure on prices, so in the least, the price declines we've seen over the last 12 months look like they might be coming to an end."
