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
September 2023
Released
30/10/2023

Key statistics

The September 2023 seasonally adjusted estimate: 

  • Rose 0.9% month-on-month.
  • Rose 2.0% compared with September 2022.
  • In volume terms, the seasonally adjusted estimate rose 0.2% in the September quarter 2023. 

An additional information release on 3 November 2023 has seen the inclusion of more detailed results for the September 2023 reference period. Additional timeseries spreadsheets have been published, including; state by industry results, state by industry sub-group results, September quarter 2023 quarterly turnover volumes, and online sales. 

Turnover at current prices
Sep-2023 ($m)Aug-2023 to Sep-2023 (% change)Sep-2022 to Sep-2023 (% change)
Trend35,684.10.31.5
Seasonally adjusted35,874.60.92.0
Turnover in volume terms
September Qtr 2023 ($m)June Qtr 2023 to September Qtr 2023 (% change)September Qtr 2022 to September Qtr 2023 (% change)
Trend98,081.6-0.3-1.8
Seasonally adjusted98,310.20.2-1.7

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 1.0% ($139.0m) in September, 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 rose 1.5% ($83.9m) in September, 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 rose 0.3% ($8.8m) in September, 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 rose 1.7% ($32.1m) in September, 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 1.3% ($70.2m) in September, 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 was relatively unchanged 0.0% ($1.2m) in September, 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 $3,653.4m in September 2023, in seasonally adjusted terms. Seasonally adjusted online sales rose 2.1 per cent ($75.5m), following a fall of 0.5 per cent (-$17.8m) in August 2023. Seasonally adjusted through-the-year sales are up 3.4 per cent ($118.7m).

Original sales in September 2023 were relatively unchanged (-$0.4m).  

In September 2023, food online sales were $1,078.1m and non-food online sales were $2,575.3m, in seasonally adjusted terms. Food sales rose 0.6 per cent ($6.7m) while non-food rose 2.7 per cent ($68.8m).

In original terms, the proportion of online food retailing sales to total food retailing remained unchanged at 6.0 per cent. The proportion for online non-food retailing sales to total non-food retailing fell from 16.5 per cent to 16.1 per cent.

In original terms, the proportion of online sales to total retailing fell from 10.6 per cent in August 2023 to 10.5 per cent in September 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 3 November 2023. This includes September quarterly retail turnover contained in Tables 5 through to 10. Tables 1 to 4 remain unchanged from their release on 30 October 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

Changes in this issue

Trend series

Differences between Retail Trade and New Experimental Economic Indicators

Previous catalogue number

This release previously used catalogue number 8501.0.

Enquiries

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Post release changes

03/11/2023 - As advertised in the main release of this publication on 30 October 2023, the time series spreadsheets for tables 5 through to 23 are now available under the Data Downloads section. This includes:

  • September 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. Please note that the quarter results are reflective of the changes to original estimates in the monthly series noted in survey impacts and changes above.
  • Updated Quarterly retail turnover per capita in Table 19.
  • An online retailing section has been added to this publication, which shows the most-up-to-date online retail sales.

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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