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
January 2022
Released
28/02/2022

Key statistics

The January 2022 seasonally adjusted estimate: 

  • Rose 1.8% month-on-month.
  • Rose 6.4% compared with January 2021.

An additional information release on 4 March 2022 has seen the inclusion of more detailed results for the January 2022 reference period. Additional timeseries spreadsheets have been published, including; state by industry results, state by industry sub-group results, December quarter 2021 turnover volumes, and online sales.

To understand more about changes in this issue, suspension of trend estimates, and COVID-19 in January 2022, please read the survey impacts and changes.

Turnover at current prices
Jan-2022 ($m)Dec-2021 to Jan-2022 (% change)Jan-2021 to Jan-2022 (% change)
Trendnanana
Seasonally adjusted32,491.91.86.4

na not available

Total retail turnover

Analysis by industry

Food retailing

Food retailing rose 2.2% ($289.0m) in January, in seasonally adjusted terms.

Household goods retailing

Household goods retailing rose 0.6% ($36.4m) in January, in seasonally adjusted terms.

Clothing, footwear and personal accessory retailing

Clothing, footwear and personal accessory retailing fell 1.0% (-$25.2m) in January, in seasonally adjusted terms.

Department stores

Department stores rose 4.9% ($74.5m) in January, in seasonally adjusted terms.

Other retailing

Other retailing rose 4.5% ($225.4m) in January, in seasonally adjusted terms.

Cafes, restaurants and takeaway food services

Cafes, restaurants and takeaway food services fell 0.8% (-$34.4m) in January, in seasonally adjusted terms.

Online Retailing

Total online retailing sales were $3,893.3m in January 2022, in seasonally adjusted terms. Seasonally adjusted online sales rose 7.9% ($285.6m), the first rise since the end of state lockdowns in October 2021 which led to three consecutive monthly falls. Despite recent falls. the January rise sees total online retailing turnover continue to remain elevated now at its second highest level in the series, up 28.3% ($859.2m), through the year in seasonally adjusted terms.

In January 2022, Food online sales were $1,064.5m, and Non-Food online sales were $2,828.8m, in seasonally adjusted terms. Non-Food sales predominately drove the rise in January’s total online sales, rising 11.1% ($282.5m) with a boost to discretionary online spending as consumers exercise caution amidst rising cases due to the Omicron variant. Food sales had a small rise of 0.3% ($3.1m) continuing on from last months rise as households return to grocery shopping online. 

In original terms, the proportion of online sales for Food retailing was 5.8% in January 2022, slightly up from 5.4% in December 2021. The portion of Food sales made online continues to remain high and is higher than any month prior to the Delta Outbreak in June 2021. The proportion of online sales for Non-Food retailing was 17.5% in January 2022, up from 15.4% in the month prior. Like Food, the portion of Non-Food sales made online remains elevated.

In original terms, the proportion of online sales to total retailing was 11.1% in January 2022, up from 10.5% last month.

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

Data downloads

Tables 5 through to 23 have been made available on 4 March 2022. This includes December 2021 quarterly results for consumer sales of energy retailing and communications services. Tables 1 through to 4 remain unchanged from their release on 28 February 2022. 

Time series spreadsheets

Data files

Data Explorer datasets

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.

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, Key Statistics - Monthly retail trade estimates for Australian businesses classified by industry group, or 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.

Survey impacts and changes

The revised release schedule for Retail Trade, Australia

Changes in this issue

Suspension of trend series

Coronavirus (COVID-19) in January

Differences between Retail Trade and New Experimental Economic Indicators

Post release changes

04/03/2022 - As advertised in the main release of this publication on 28 February 2022, the time series spreadsheets for tables 5 through to 23 are now available under the Data Downloads section. This includes:

  • January monthly results for State by Industry Subgroup, Completely Enumerated (large) and Sample (small) businesses, and Online Retail Turnover. 
  • December quarter 2021 results, available in tables 5 through to 10. These results have been published previously.
  • December quarter 2021 results for consumer sales of energy retailing and communications services.

In addition, 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

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