CHART OF THE WEEK

Australian small business’ view on the importance of 5G networks

Australian Small Business Survey: 5G broadband battleground for Optus, Telstra, TPG and NBN

Australian small business’ readiness to take up 5G

This report presents the survey results across 602 small businesses and highlights their views on willingness to pay, churn intentions and their views on 5G mobile and fixed wireless broadband.
The survey was targeted towards the IT decision makers in small businesses, which this survey defined as having an employee count of between 5 – 20 employees.
The survey showed that a high percentage of small businesses would consider switching to 5G fixed wireless broadband if it was available. In addition 51% of small business respondents would consider switching broadband providers – indicating a highly contested market. With Optus already selling 5G wireless broadband, Telstra announcing an upcoming launch and TPG expected to follow, we expect the SMB market will likely be a strong battleground for 5G fixed wireless. Click here to request our report.

COVID-19 drives digitisation in disability support

NDIS participants

A significant milestone event occurred in the fourth quarter of 2019 / 2020 year.  After seven years the NDIS is now available to 100% of all eligible Australians regardless of where they live. Availability of 100% is up from 97% a year earlier and now includes remote areas such as Christmas Island and Coco Islands. The total number of active participants to 30 June 2020 has reached ~390,000, up from ~286,000 a year earlier. We anticipate the total number of participants of ~460,000 will be achieved over the next four quarters.
The sector embraced the COVID-19 pandemic including encouraging participants to identify their essential supports and use their funding flexibly to meet their critical needs. Plans were amended quickly where required to support this flexibility. Plan amendments included participants accessing low-cost assistive technology of up to $1,500 (e.g. smart devices) to help ensure the continuity of NDIS funded supports (e.g. therapy and social participation).
The sector remains highly fragmented with around ~14,900 active providers (~12,400 to 30 June 2019). Payments received by participants reached around $16.1 billion (up from $10.3 billion in the prior year), with an average payment of $50,800 to each active participant. Access decisions are now made within 10 days on average, being 4 times faster than a year ago.
Venture Insight will publish its NDIS update report in the coming weeks.  If you wish to receive this report free please register your interest below. In the meantime, you can click the “View tracker” button below to access key NDIS statistics in our NDIS performance tracker . 

Surging online retail in the UK – record growth during lockdown

Monthly UK COVID-19 cases and indexed retail sales (Jan 2020 = 100)

Over Q2, the value of online sales (excl. fuel) grew by 55%, whilst offline sales (excl. fuel) declined by 22%. Three months of lockdown has accelerated ecommerce by four years and households will spend more than ever before online, post-lockdown.
The rapid shift to ecommerce poses lofty challenges to UK retailers who have historically been timid in their approach to ecommerce. Integration between sales channels will become more important than ever before, but very few have managed to perfect this approach.
As more retail activity takes place online, ad products from the likes of Google, Amazon and Facebook stand to benefit greatly, pulling spend from other ad and marketing budgets that were aimed at driving in-store behaviours. Click here to request the report.

Australian GDP by economic sector – upcoming GDP Outlook report

GDP by economic segment

Australia’s economy fell 7.0% (seasonally adjusted) for the June quarter on the back of COVID-19 restrictions. This represents the biggest quarterly fall since records began in 1959. Coupled with the 0.3% decline in the March quarter (on the back of severe bushfires and early stages of COVID-19) the economy is technically in a recession (defined as two consecutive quarters of negative growth).
The worst hit sectors in the economy included accommodation and food services (-43.3%), transport, postal and warehousing (-23.7%), administration and support services (-23.2%), and arts and recreation services (-24.5%). The only segments to show growth were public administration and safety (+5.4%), education and training (+2.0%), ownership and dwellings (+2.4%) and mining (+1.0).
Venture Insight will publish its GDP outlook report in coming weeks.  If you wish to receive this report free please register your interest below. In the meantime you can access GDP statistics by economic sector by clicking “View tracker”.