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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
October 2023
Released
28/11/2023

Key statistics

The October 2023 seasonally adjusted estimate: 

  • Fell 0.2% month-on-month.
  • Rose 1.2% compared with October 2022.

An additional information release on 4 December 2023 has seen the inclusion of more detailed results for the October 2023 reference period. Additional timeseries spreadsheets have been published, including; state by industry results, state by industry sub-group results, previously published September quarter 2023 quarterly turnover volumes, and online sales. 

Future cessation of the Retail Business Survey and Retail Trade Publication

A media statement on Thursday 23 November 2023 announced that the ABS will cease publication of Retail Trade, Australia due to enhancements to the Monthly Household Spending Indicator (MHSI). The last release of the Retail Trade, Australia publication is expected to be in August 2025, referencing the June 2025 period. For more information on the upcoming changes, please see survey impacts and changes below or visit the Future cessation of the Retail Business Survey and Retail Trade Publication webpage.

Turnover at current prices
Oct-2023 ($m)Sep-2023 to Oct-2023 (% change)Oct-2022 to Oct-2023 (% change)
Trend35,763.20.31.5
Seasonally adjusted35,767.8-0.21.2

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 0.5% ($67.1m) 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.

Household goods retailing

Household goods retailing fell 0.6% (-$37.2m) 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.

Clothing, footwear and personal accessory retailing

Clothing, footwear and personal accessory retailing fell 1.0% (-$30.6m) 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.

Department stores

Department stores fell 0.6% (-$11.7m) 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 fell 0.4% (-$24.3m) 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.

Cafes, restaurants and takeaway food services

Cafes, restaurants and takeaway food services fell 0.4% (-$20.4m) 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.

Online retailing

Total online retailing sales were $3,656.1m in October 2023, in seasonally adjusted terms. Seasonally adjusted online sales fell 0.5 per cent (-$17.9m), following a rise of 2.5 per cent ($89.0m) in September 2023. Seasonally adjusted through-the-year sales are up 3.2 per cent ($113.3m).

Original online sales in October 2023 rose 5.9 per cent ($217.0m).  

In October 2023, food online sales were $1,179.9m and non-food online sales were $2,476.2m, in seasonally adjusted terms. Food sales rose 7.8 per cent ($85.5m) whilst non-food fell 4.0 per cent (-$103.4m), seasonally adjusted.

In original terms, the proportion of online food retailing sales to total food retailing rose from 6.0 per cent to 6.1 per cent. The proportion for online non-food retailing sales to total non-food retailing rose from 16.1 per cent to 16.6 per cent.

In original terms, the proportion of online sales to total retailing rose from 10.5 per cent in September 2023 to 10.8 per cent in October 2023.

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 December 2023. This includes September 2023 quarterly results for consumer sales of energy retailing and communications services. Tables 1 through to 4 remain unchanged from their release on 28 November 2023.

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

Future cessation of the Retail Business Survey and Retail Trade Publication

Changes in this issue

Trend series

Differences between Retail Trade and other Economic Indicators

Post release changes

04/12/2023 - As advertised in the main release of this publication on 28 November 2023, the time series spreadsheets for tables 5 through to 23 are now available under the Data Downloads section. This includes:

  • October monthly results for State by Industry Subgroup, Completely Enumerated (large) and Sample (small) businesses, and Online Retail Turnover. 
  • September quarter 2023 results, available in tables 5 through to 10. These results have been published previously. 
  • September quarter 2023 results for consumer sales of energy retailing and communications services.

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.

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.

View full methodology
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