Retail Trade, Australia

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

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Reference period
January 2025
Released
4/03/2025
  • Next Release 1/04/2025
    Retail Trade, Australia, February 2025
  • Next Release 2/05/2025
    Retail Trade, Australia, March 2025
  • Next Release 30/05/2025
    Retail Trade, Australia, April 2025
  • View all releases

Key statistics

The January 2025 seasonally adjusted estimate: 

  • Rose 0.3% month-on-month.
  • Rose 3.8% compared with January 2024.

Turnover at current prices

Jan-2025 ($m)Dec-2024 to Jan-2025 (% change)Jan-2024 to Jan-2025 (% change)
Trend37,130.40.34.1
Seasonally adjusted37,076.40.33.8

Total retail turnover

Monthly turnover, current prices - seasonally adjusted estimate

Monthly turnover, current prices - seasonally adjusted estimate

Combination chart with 2 data series.
The chart has 1 X axis displaying Month.
The chart has 1 Y axis displaying %. Data ranges from -17.1 to 24.8.
End of interactive chart.

Total retail turnover - level, current prices

Total retail turnover - level, current prices

Line chart with 2 lines.
The chart has 1 X axis displaying Month.
The chart has 1 Y axis displaying $m. Data ranges from 24796.8 to 37130.4.
End of interactive chart.

Trend estimates from March 2020 to June 2022 are not available due to the degree of disruption and volatility caused by COVID-19. Trend estimates throughout the pandemic period are likely to be unhelpful and potentially misleading for users in interpreting underlying trend in retail activity.

Monthly turnover, current prices, by industry - percentage change from previous month

Monthly turnover, current prices, by industry - percentage change from previous month

Bar chart with 7 bars.
The chart has 1 X axis displaying Industry.
The chart has 1 Y axis displaying %. Data ranges from -4.4 to 2.4.
End of interactive chart.

Monthly turnover, current prices, by state and territory - percentage change from previous month

Monthly turnover, current prices, by state and territory - percentage change from previous month

Bar chart with 9 bars.
The chart has 1 X axis displaying State.
The chart has 1 Y axis displaying %. Data ranges from -0.3 to 1.1.
End of interactive chart.

Analysis by industry

Food retailing

Food retailing rose 0.7% ($102.0m) in January, in seasonally adjusted terms.

By industry subgroup, the seasonally adjusted estimate:

  • rose 1.0% ($120.7m) for Supermarket and grocery stores.
  • rose 0.8% ($9.1m) for Other specialised food retailing.
  • fell 1.8% (-$27.7m) for Liquor retailing.

Food retailing

Food retailing

Line chart with 2 lines.
The chart has 1 X axis displaying Month.
The chart has 1 Y axis displaying $m. Data ranges from 11526 to 14689.3.
End of interactive chart.

Trend estimates from March 2020 to June 2022 are not available due to the degree of disruption and volatility caused by COVID-19. Trend estimates throughout the pandemic period are likely to be unhelpful and potentially misleading for users in interpreting underlying trend in retail activity.

Household goods retailing

Household goods retailing fell 4.4% (-$269.7m) in January, in seasonally adjusted terms.

By industry subgroup, the seasonally adjusted estimate:

  • fell 8.2% (-$190.7m) for Electrical and electronic goods retailing.
  • fell 4.9% (-$82.8m) for Furniture, floor coverings, houseware and textile goods retailing.
  • rose 0.2% ($3.9m) for Hardware, building and garden supplies retailing.

Household goods retailing

Household goods retailing

Line chart with 2 lines.
The chart has 1 X axis displaying Month.
The chart has 1 Y axis displaying $m. Data ranges from 4640.5 to 6276.2.
End of interactive chart.

Trend estimates from March 2020 to June 2022 are not available due to the degree of disruption and volatility caused by COVID-19. Trend estimates throughout the pandemic period are likely to be unhelpful and potentially misleading for users in interpreting underlying trend in retail activity.

Clothing, footwear and personal accessory retailing

Clothing, footwear and personal accessory retailing rose 2.0% ($60.1m) in January, in seasonally adjusted terms.

By industry subgroup, the seasonally adjusted estimate:

  • rose 2.4% ($48.5m) for Clothing retailing.
  • rose 1.2% ($11.6m) for Footwear and other personal accessory retailing.

Clothing, footwear and personal accessory retailing

Clothing, footwear and personal accessory retailing

Line chart with 2 lines.
The chart has 1 X axis displaying Month.
The chart has 1 Y axis displaying $m. Data ranges from 752.6 to 3087.3.
End of interactive chart.

Trend estimates from March 2020 to June 2022 are not available due to the degree of disruption and volatility caused by COVID-19. Trend estimates throughout the pandemic period are likely to be unhelpful and potentially misleading for users in interpreting underlying trend in retail activity.

Department stores

Department stores rose 0.6% ($12.4m) in January, in seasonally adjusted terms.

Department stores

Department stores

Line chart with 2 lines.
The chart has 1 X axis displaying Month.
The chart has 1 Y axis displaying $m. Data ranges from 1218.7 to 1930.1.
End of interactive chart.

Trend estimates from March 2020 to June 2022 are not available due to the degree of disruption and volatility caused by COVID-19. Trend estimates throughout the pandemic period are likely to be unhelpful and potentially misleading for users in interpreting underlying trend in retail activity.

Other retailing

Other retailing rose 2.4% ($136.3m) in January, in seasonally adjusted terms.

By industry subgroup, the seasonally adjusted estimate:

  • rose 2.1% ($55.5m) for Other retailing n.e.c..
  • rose 2.3% ($54.0m) for Pharmaceutical, cosmetic and toiletry goods retailing.
  • rose 5.3% ($32.5m) for Other recreational goods retailing.
  • fell 3.3% (-$5.6m) for Newspaper and book retailing.

Other retailing

Other retailing

Line chart with 2 lines.
The chart has 1 X axis displaying Month.
The chart has 1 Y axis displaying $m. Data ranges from 3958.3 to 5898.
End of interactive chart.

Trend estimates from March 2020 to June 2022 are not available due to the degree of disruption and volatility caused by COVID-19. Trend estimates throughout the pandemic period are likely to be unhelpful and potentially misleading for users in interpreting underlying trend in retail activity.

Cafes, restaurants and takeaway food services

Cafes, restaurants and takeaway food services rose 1.1% ($61.6m) in January, in seasonally adjusted terms.

By industry subgroup, the seasonally adjusted estimate:

  • rose 1.9% ($64.7m) for Cafes, restaurants and catering services.
  • fell 0.1% (-$3.0m) for Takeaway food services.

Cafes, restaurants and takeaway food services

Cafes, restaurants and takeaway food services

Line chart with 2 lines.
The chart has 1 X axis displaying Month.
The chart has 1 Y axis displaying $m. Data ranges from 1951.4 to 5581.3.
End of interactive chart.

Trend estimates from March 2020 to June 2022 are not available due to the degree of disruption and volatility caused by COVID-19. Trend estimates throughout the pandemic period are likely to be unhelpful and potentially misleading for users in interpreting underlying trend in retail activity.

Online retailing

Total online retailing sales were $4,427.6m in January 2025, in seasonally adjusted terms. Seasonally adjusted online sales rose 0.2% ($8.7m), following a rise of 4.3% ($180.3m) in December 2024. Seasonally adjusted through-the-year sales are up 12.0% ($473.2m). 

Original online sales fell 22.7 % (-$1,215.4m) in January 2025 compared to a fall of 21.3% (-$9,773.8m) in original total sales.

Total online, original and seasonally adjusted

Total online, original and seasonally adjusted

Line chart with 2 lines.
The chart has 1 X axis displaying .
The chart has 1 Y axis displaying $m. Data ranges from 1675.8 to 5349.4.
End of interactive chart.

In January 2025, food online sales were $1,323.7m and non-food online sales were $3,103.9.m, in seasonally adjusted terms. Food sales fell 0.1% ($2.0m) whilst non-food rose 0.3% ($10.7m), seasonally adjusted. 

Online sales, Food and Non-Food, seasonally adjusted

Online sales, Food and Non-Food, seasonally adjusted

Line chart with 2 lines.
The chart has 1 X axis displaying .
The chart has 1 Y axis displaying $m. Data ranges from 503 to 3279.4.
End of interactive chart.

In original terms, the proportion of online food retailing sales to total food retailing rose from 6.0% to 6.3%. The proportion for online non-food retailing sales to total non-food retailing rose from 17.3% to 17.8%. 

In original terms, the proportion of online sales to total retailing fell from 11.6% to 11.4%.  This compares to 10.6% in January 2024.

Proportion of industry group turnover online, original

Proportion of industry group turnover online, original

Line chart with 3 lines.
The chart has 1 X axis displaying .
The chart has 1 Y axis displaying %. Data ranges from 2.8 to 25.5.
End of interactive chart.

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

Data downloads

From the March quarter 2025, the Survey of Consumer Sales time series spreadsheets (Table 17 & 18) will be published as part of Business Indicators, Australia (cat. no. 5676.0), with the first release on 3 June 2025. This is in line with the future cessation of the Retail Trade publication on 31 July 2025.

Download all (4.44 MB)

Time series spreadsheets

Data files

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For more information about Data Explorer and to see what's changed, see the Data Explorer user guide.

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

Previous catalogue number

This release previously used catalogue number 8501.0.

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Methodology

Scope

This publication presents estimates of the value of turnover of retail trade for Australian businesses. This includes all employing retail trade businesses who predominantly sell to households.

Geography

Data is available for:

  • Australia Total
  • States and territories.

Source

Retail Business Survey

Collection method

The survey includes about 700 large businesses and 2,700 smaller businesses selected by random sample.

The survey is conducted monthly primarily by telephone interview. A small number of questionnaires are mailed.

Concepts, sources and methods

Turnover includes:

  • retail sales
  • online sales
  • wholesale sales
  • takings from repairs, meals & hiring of goods
  • commissions from agency activity

Businesses are classified in terms of the retail industry group and subgroup it mainly operates in.

History of changes

GST was included in turnover from 2000.

View full methodology

Media releases