While international retailers and national chain stores are important elements of the retail industry, it is small and independent traders that play a vital role in local communities, particularly in regional towns.

Small stores provide local consumers with a wide variety of goods and services, employment opportunities, an alternative to the offerings from multinational corporations, and they support local makers and producers. Small, niche stores also attract tourists and visitors, and significantly, they keep profits circulating in the local economy.

Small stores face numerous challenges – the rise of online shopping, cost of living pressures for households and reduced discretionary spending, changing consumer behaviour due to COVID-19, diminished footfall as more people work from home and rising business costs especially commercial rental rates.

Given the importance of local shopping, what can be done to support the local retail sector in regional towns and cities? This new research project examines the important role of small stores in local communities, the challenges facing individual traders and retail shopping precincts, and solutions for individual retailers, regional communities and local governments to ensure local shopping areas can survive and thrive.