| Oct-2024 ($m) | Sep-2024 to Oct-2024 (% change) | Oct-2023 to Oct-2024 (% change) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Trend | 36,656.2 | 0.3 | 2.9 |
| Seasonally adjusted | 36,702.7 | 0.6 | 3.4 |
Retail Trade, Australia
Latest release
Monthly and quarterly estimates of turnover and volumes for retail businesses, including store and online sales.
Reference period
October 2024
Released
2/12/2024
Key statistics
The October 2024 seasonally adjusted estimate:
- Rose 0.6% month-on-month.
- Rose 3.4% compared with October 2023.
Total retail turnover
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.
Analysis by industry
Food retailing
Food retailing rose 0.3% ($39.7m) in October, in seasonally adjusted terms.
By industry subgroup, the seasonally adjusted estimate:
- rose 1.7% ($24.6m) for Liquor retailing.
- rose 1.0% ($10.5m) for Other specialised food retailing.
- was relatively unchanged 0.0% ($4.6m) for Supermarket and grocery stores.
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 rose 1.4% ($79.3m) in October, in seasonally adjusted terms.
By industry subgroup, the seasonally adjusted estimate:
- rose 2.7% ($58.0m) for Electrical and electronic goods retailing.
- rose 0.6% ($13.2m) for Hardware, building and garden supplies retailing.
- rose 0.5% ($8.1m) for Furniture, floor coverings, houseware and textile goods retailing.
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 fell -0.6% (-$18.1m) in October, in seasonally adjusted terms.
By industry subgroup, the seasonally adjusted estimate:
- fell 0.8% (-$16.4m) for Clothing retailing.
- fell 0.2% (-$1.7m) for Footwear and other personal accessory retailing.
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 fell 0.3% (-$5.3m) in October, in seasonally adjusted terms.
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 1.6% ($90.4m) in October, in seasonally adjusted terms.
By industry subgroup, the seasonally adjusted estimate:
- rose 1.8% ($45.9m) for Other retailing n.e.c..
- rose 1.4% ($32.9m) for Pharmaceutical, cosmetic and toiletry goods retailing.
- rose 2.0% ($12.5m) for Other recreational goods retailing.
- fell 0.6% (-$1.0m) for Newspaper and book retailing.
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 0.3% ($19.0m) in October, in seasonally adjusted terms.
By industry subgroup, the seasonally adjusted estimate:
- rose 1.4% ($29.1m) for Takeaway food services.
- fell 0.3% (-$10.1m) for Cafes, restaurants and catering services.
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 $4,102.8m in October 2024, in seasonally adjusted terms. Seasonally adjusted online sales rose 0.8% ($31.6m), following a fall of 1.1% (-$46.8m) in September 2024. Seasonally adjusted through-the-year sales are up 9.6% ($359.7m).
Original online sales rose 7.5% ($302.3m) in October 2024 compared to a rise of 5.9% at the same time last year.
In October 2024, food online sales were $1,256.2m and non-food online sales were $2,846.6m, in seasonally adjusted terms. Food sales rose 2.7% ($32.6m) whilst non-food was relatively unchanged (0.0%, -$1.0m), seasonally adjusted.
In original terms, the proportion of online food retailing sales to total food retailing rose from 6.3% to 6.5%. The proportion for online non-food retailing sales to total non-food retailing remain unchanged at 17.8%.
In original terms, the proportion of online sales to total retailing rose from 11.4% to 11.6%. The proportion of online sales to total retailing was 10.8% at the same time last year.
Additional notes regarding the online sales series can be found in the Methodology.
Data downloads
Time series spreadsheets
Data files
Table 1. Retail turnover, by industry group
Table 2. Retail turnover, by industry group - percentage change from previous month
Table 3. Retail turnover, by state
Table 4. Retail turnover, by state - percentage change from previous month
Table 5. Quarterly retail turnover percentage change, volume and price, seasonally adjusted - by industry group
Table 6. Quarterly retail turnover percentage change, volume and price, seasonally adjusted - by state
Table 7. Quarterly retail turnover, chain volume measures - by industry group
Table 8. Quarterly retail turnover percentage change, chain volume measures - by industry group
Table 9. Quarterly retail turnover, chain volume measures - by state
Table 10. Quarterly retail turnover percentage change, chain volume measures - by state
Table 11. Retail turnover, state by industry subgroup, original
Table 12. Retail turnover, state by industry subgroup, seasonally adjusted
Table 13. Retail turnover, state by industry subgroup, trend
Table 14. Retail turnover; completely enumerated (large) and sample (small), by industry group
Table 15. Retail turnover; completely enumerated (large) and sample (small), by state
Table 16. Retail turnover, completely enumerated sector: Australia
Table 17. Quarterly consumer sales, Australia, by type of activity
Table 18. Quarterly consumer sales, Australia, by type of activity - percentage change from previous quarter
Table 19. Quarterly retail turnover per capita, Australia, all series
Table 20. Quarterly retail turnover per capita, Australia, all series - percentage change from previous quarter
Table 21. Experimental series - online retail turnover Australia by type of activity
Table 22. Experimental series - online retail turnover Australia by type of activity percentage change
Table 23. Experimental series - online retail turnover Australia by type of activity percentage of total Australian retail turnover
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 - 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
Change to the Retail Trade, Australia release schedule
Future cessation of the Retail Business Survey and Retail Trade Publication
Changes in this issue
Seasonality in retail turnover
Trend series
Differences between Retail Trade and other Economic Indicators
Previous catalogue number
This release previously used catalogue number 8501.0.
Enquiries
For enquiries 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.
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.