Small businesses shut up shop under pressure from online's 'ultra-low-cost operators'

Australia Broadcast Center

16 hours ago

Noels Sens has been crafting necklaces and rings his whole life, but the Bendigo jeweller is planning to call time on the family business.
His father migrated to Australia in 1954 from the Netherlands and started his own jewellery and watchmaking business in central Bendigo.
But now the family legacy is winding up.
"You can't do things forever and there is no succession with family, which is kind of sad, but that's just how life goes."
Mr Sens said the number of jewellery and watchmakers in Bendigo had plummeted while larger chain stores now dominated the market offering "cheaper stuff".
"[The number of] people actually making stuff and repairing stuff is dwindling," he said.
"It's a trade that's dying."
In the coastal town of Warrnambool, in Victoria's south west, Rauerts Shoes is another family business that is reluctantly closing the doors.
For two years owner Peter Rauerts has tried to sell the business, set up by his late father in 1946, but there was "very little interest" from prospective buyers.
"We were willing to negotiate. Talk turkey, as you say. But no-one's come forward [and] made us an offer," Mr Rauerts said.
He said he was ready to retire, his son had declined to take on the family business, and costs had just kept rising.
Another Warrnambool institution, Dale Cleves Music Shop, closed in April after 40 years of doing business in the town.
Store manager of 32 years, Ron Philp, said the current climate was tough for small retailers.
"Financially it doesn't add up [to keep going]," he said.
While neither of these Warrnambool businesses were closing due to financial trouble, the Australian Retailers Association [ARA] said insolvencies nationally had risen by almost 20 per cent in one year to March 2025.
The Australian Retailers Association said the retail landscape had been disrupted by "ultra-low-cost operators".
"Temu and Shein [global online businesses] are growing at pace in this market, operating outside the legal commitments of local homegrown retailers in areas such as tax, employment and sustainability," CEO Chris Rodwell said.
According to Australia Post, Australians spent almost $69 billion shopping online in 2024, 12 per cent more than the previous year.
"There's no question that online shopping is having a big effect on retail," said Bendigo trophy shop owner Glenn Fordham.
Mr Fordham is another long-term Bendigo retailer retiring without selling his business.
His son, Seann, plans to take the family's trophy business online without a bricks and mortar presence.
The federal government will host a roundtable with experts, unions and business leader in August on how to improve productivity.
In February, Small Business Ombudsman Bruce Billson said there was an "alarming trend" of Australia's small businesses declining with large corporate businesses employing more people.
"We are sleepwalking into a big corporate economy," he said.
That's a view shared by Steve Timmis who closed his gin distillery shop in Mildura about a year ago.
Mr Timmis said he had experienced mounting licensing fees from multiples tiers of government and increased property rates before he shut up shop.
"It is just becoming overwhelming now. You're seeing huge amounts of businesses close down and exiting, particularly in Victoria and, more so, in regional Victoria," he said.
"I call it a death by a thousand cuts."
The Victorian government did not respond to the ABC's request for comment before deadline.