Retail Trade, Australia

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Monthly and quarterly estimates of turnover and volumes for retail businesses, including store and online sales.

Reference period
September 2021
Released
29/10/2021

Key statistics

The September 2021 seasonally adjusted estimate: 

  • Rose 1.3% month-on-month.
  • Rose 1.7% compared with September 2020.
  • In volume terms, the seasonally adjusted estimate fell 4.4% in the September quarter 2021.

Release Schedule for Retail Trade, Australia

The Retail Trade, Australia publication has moved to a new release schedule to better accommodate data users’ needs following the discontinuation of Retail Trade, Australia, Preliminary.

An additional information release on 4 November 2021 has seen the inclusion of more detailed results for the September 2021 reference period. Additional timeseries spreadsheets have been published, including; state by industry results, state by industry sub-group results, September quarter 2021 turnover volumes, and online sales.

Please note the November 2021 reference period issue was scheduled for release on 5 January 2022, with an additional information release on 11 January 2022. For the November 2021 issue only, all information will be released on 11 January 2022. Subsequent issues will return to the dual release format.

To understand more about any changes to the release schedule, as well as changes in this issue, suspension of trend estimates, and COVID-19 in September 2021, please read the survey impacts and changes.

Turnover at current prices
Sep-2021 ($m)Aug-2021 to Sep-2021 (% change)Sep-2020 to Sep-2021 (% change)
Trendnanana
Seasonally Adjusted29,669.31.31.7

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Turnover in volume terms
September Qtr 2021 ($m)June Qtr 2021 to September Qtr 2021 (% change)September Qtr 2020 to September Qtr 2021 (% change)
Trendnanana
Seasonally Adjusted85,348.5-4.4-2.2

na not available

Total retail turnover

Analysis by industry

Food retailing

Food retailing fell 1.4% (-$183.6m) in September, in seasonally adjusted terms.

Household goods retailing

Household goods retailing rose 4.3% ($227.7m) in September, in seasonally adjusted terms.

Clothing, footwear and personal accessory retailing

Clothing, footwear and personal accessory retailing rose 5.9% ($96.1m) in September, in seasonally adjusted terms.

Department stores

Department stores fell 0.3% (-$4.0m) in September, in seasonally adjusted terms.

Other retailing

Other retailing rose 2.1% ($98.0m) in September, in seasonally adjusted terms.

Cafes, restaurants and takeaway food services

Cafes, restaurants, and takeaway food services rose 5.0% ($159.7m) in September, in seasonally adjusted terms.

Online retailing

Total online retailing sales were $4,341.4m in September 2021, in seasonally adjusted terms. This was the highest level for the monthly online retail sales in the history of this series, exceeding last month’s record result. In seasonally adjusted terms, the 3.4% ($143m) rise in September has added to the double-digit growth seen over each of the last three months, where lockdowns in New South Wales, Victoria and the Australian Capital Territory boosted online activity.

In September 2021, Food online sales were $1,099.7m, and Non-Food online sales were $3,241.7m, in seasonally adjusted terms. Food sales rose $3m (0.3%) in September 2021, a small increase following last month’s record increase in dollar terms. Non-Food sales rose $139.9m (4.5%) in September 2021, a modest increase following the double-digit monthly growth seen from June 2021 through to August 2021.

In original terms, the proportion of online sales for Food retailing was 7.2% in September 2021, down from 7.4% in August 2021, with Food online sales continuing to remain elevated due to lockdowns. The proportion of online sales for Non-Food retailing was 25.5%, the largest proportion recorded over the history of this series eclipsing the previous record from last month (25.1%).

In original terms, the proportion of online sales for total retailing was 15.3% in September 2021. This was the largest proportion of online sales for total retailing since data has been collected, eclipsing the previous record of 15.0% recorded last month.

Additional notes regarding the online sales series can be found in the Methodology.

Data downloads

Tables 5 through to 23 have been made available on 4 November 2021. This includes September quarterly retail turnover contained in Tables 5 through to 10. Tables 1 through to 4 remain unchanged from their release on 29 October 2021.

Please note, we will be progressively transitioning to releasing Excel files in .XLSX format from 3 December 2021.

Time series spreadsheets

Data files

ABS.Stat datasets

Caution: Data in ABS.Stat is currently released after the 11:30am release on the ABS website. Please check the reference period when using ABS.Stat.

Retail Trade, Key Aggregates - Monthly retail trade turnover estimates for Australian businesses classified by industry, and by state and territory

Retail Trade - Monthly and quarterly retail trade turnover estimates for Australian businesses classified by industry group, sub group, and by state and territory

ABS.Stat is updating and the above datasets are now available in 'Data Explorer'. 
The data available in Data Explorer is similar to ABS.Stat but with a new interface and added functionality.
For more information about Data Explorer and to see what's changed, see the Data Explorer user guide
The current version of ABS.Stat will be removed at the end of 2021.

Data Explorer datasets

Caution: Data in Data Explorer is currently released after the 11:30am release on the ABS website. Please check the reference period when using Data Explorer.

Retail Trade - Monthly and quarterly retail trade turnover estimates for Australian businesses classified by industry group, sub group, and by state and territory

Survey impacts and changes

The revised release schedule for Retail Trade, Australia

Changes in this issue

Suspension of trend series

Coronavirus (COVID-19) in September

Differences between Retail Trade and Monthly Business Turnover Indicator

Post release changes

04/11/2021 - As advertised in the main release of this publication on 29 October 2021, the time series spreadsheets for tables 5 through to 23 are now available under the Data Downloads section. This includes:

  • September monthly results for State by Industry Subgroup, Completely Enumerated (large) and Sample (small) businesses, and Online Retail Turnover.
  • September quarter 2021 results, available in tables 5 through to 10.

In addition, September quarter results and an online retailing section has been added to this publication, which shows the most up-to-date online retail sales.

Previous catalogue number

This release previously used catalogue number 8501.0.

Inquiries

For inquiries about these and related statistics, contact the Customer Assistance Service via the ABS website Contact Us page. The ABS Privacy Policy outlines how the ABS will handle any personal information that you provide to us.

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