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
May 2022
Released
29/06/2022

Key statistics

The May 2022 seasonally adjusted estimate: 

  • Rose 0.9% month-on-month.
  • Rose 10.4% compared with May 2021.

An additional information release on 5 July 2022 has seen the inclusion of more detailed results for the May 2022 reference period. Additional timeseries spreadsheets have been published, including; state by industry results, state by industry sub-group results, March quarter 2022 turnover volumes, and online sales.

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

Turnover at current prices
May-2022 ($m)Apr-2022 to May-2022 (% change)May-2021 to May-2022 (% change)
Trendnanana
Seasonally adjusted34,229.20.910.4

na not available

Total retail turnover

Analysis by industry

Food retailing

Food retailing rose 0.6% ($73.2m) in May, in seasonally adjusted terms.

Household goods retailing

Household goods retailing rose 0.4% ($22.7m) in May, in seasonally adjusted terms.

Clothing, footwear and personal accessory retailing

Clothing, footwear and personal accessory retailing fell 1.4% (-$41.8m) in May, in seasonally adjusted terms.

Department stores

Department stores rose 5.1% ($90.9m) in May, in seasonally adjusted terms.

Other retailing

Other retailing rose 1.5% ($78.5m) in May, in seasonally adjusted terms.

Cafes, restaurants and takeaway food services

Cafes, restaurants and takeaway food services rose 1.8% ($82.6m) in May, in seasonally adjusted terms.

Online retailing

Total online retailing sales were $3,655.6m in May 2022, in seasonally adjusted terms. Seasonally adjusted online sales fell 0.6% (-$21.8m), following a 1.3% (-$47.7m) fall in April 2022 as spending continues to shift back to brick and mortar stores. This is the fifth monthly fall since lockdowns ended in October 2021. Whilst down on the Delta outbreak peak, total online retailing sales remain elevated, up 30.2% ($847.8m) through-the-year, in seasonally adjusted terms.

In May 2022, Food online sales were $1,062.7m, and Non-Food online sales were $2,592.9m, in seasonally adjusted terms. Both online sales categories contributed to the fall with non-food sales down 0.8% (-$20.7m) and food sales down 0.1 per cent (-$1.1m).

In original terms there were rises in the proportion of online sales for both Food and non-Food retailing to total retailing. The proportion of online Food sales rose to 5.6% in May 2022 from 5.5% in April 2022, while the proportion of online Non-Food sales rose to 16.1% in May 2022 from 15.4% in April 2022.


In original terms, the proportion of online sales to total retailing rose 0.5% to 10.5% in May 2022.

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

Data downloads

Table 5 through to 23 have been made available on 5 July 2022. Tables 1 through to 4 remain unchanged from their release on 29 June 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 May

Differences between Retail Trade and New Experimental Economic Indicators

Post release changes

05/07/2022 - As advertised in the main release of this publication on 29 June 2022, the time series spreadsheets for tables 5 through to 23 are now available under the Data Downloads section. This includes:

  • May monthly results for State by Industry Subgroup, Completely Enumerated (large) and Sample (small) businesses, and Online Retail Turnover.  
  • March quarter 2022 results, available in Tables 5 through to 10. These results have been published previously.

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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