Retail Trade, Australia

Latest release

Monthly and quarterly estimates of turnover and volumes for retail businesses, including store and online sales.

Reference period
December 2024
Released
3/02/2025
  • Next Release 4/03/2025
    Retail Trade, Australia, January 2025
  • Next Release 1/04/2025
    Retail Trade, Australia, February 2025
  • Next Release 2/05/2025
    Retail Trade, Australia, March 2025
  • View all releases

Key statistics

The December 2024 seasonally adjusted estimate: 

  • Fell 0.1% month-on-month.
  • Rose 4.6% compared with December 2023.
  • In volume terms, the seasonally adjusted estimate rose 1.0% in the December quarter 2024.
Turnover at current prices
Dec-2024 ($m)Nov-2024 to Dec-2024 (% change)Dec-2023 to Dec-2024 (% change)
Trend37,055.80.43.9
Seasonally adjusted36,991.5-0.14.6
Turnover in volume terms
December Qtr 2024 ($m)September Qtr 2024 to December Qtr 2024 (% change)December Qtr 2023 to December Qtr 2024 (% change)
Trend105,490.60.61.0
Seasonally adjusted105,820.21.01.1

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 0.1% ($9.7m) in December, in seasonally adjusted terms.

By industry subgroup, the seasonally adjusted estimate:

  • rose 4.2% ($43.1m) for Other specialised food retailing.
  • rose 0.8% ($12.2m) for Liquor retailing.
  • fell 0.4% (-$45.6m) 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 1.6% ($96.5m) in December, in seasonally adjusted terms.

By industry subgroup, the seasonally adjusted estimate:

  • rose 2.9% ($64.5m) for Electrical and electronic goods retailing.
  • rose 2.5% ($40.7m) for Furniture, floor coverings, houseware and textile goods retailing.
  • fell 0.4% (-$8.8m) for Hardware, building and garden supplies 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 1.8% (-$55.0m) in December, in seasonally adjusted terms.

By industry subgroup, the seasonally adjusted estimate:

  • fell 1.9% (-$39.0m) for Clothing retailing.
  • fell 1.6% (-$15.9m) 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 rose 0.4% ($8.2m) in December, 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 1.4% (-$82.4m) in December, in seasonally adjusted terms.

By industry subgroup, the seasonally adjusted estimate:

  • fell 1.7% (-$44.7m) for Other retailing n.e.c..
  • fell 1.1% (-$27.1m) for Pharmaceutical, cosmetic and toiletry goods retailing.
  • fell 1.9% (-$12.2m) for Other recreational goods retailing.
  • rose 1.0% ($1.7m) 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 fell 0.5% (-$26.4m) in December, in seasonally adjusted terms.

By industry subgroup, the seasonally adjusted estimate:

  • fell 0.6% (-$20.9m) for Cafes, restaurants and catering services.
  • fell 0.3% (-$5.5m) for Takeaway food 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 $4,411.2m in December 2024, in seasonally adjusted terms. Seasonally adjusted online sales rose 4.2% ($178.1m), following a rise of 1.8% ($76.6m) in November 2024. Seasonally adjusted through-the-year sales are up 12.7% ($498.4m). 

Original online sales rose 1.3% ($71.0m) in December 2024 compared to a fall of 5.0% at the same time last year. Online sales this year have been boosted by the timing of Cyber Monday falling early in December.

In December 2024, food online sales were $1,331.2m and non-food online sales were $3,079.9m, in seasonally adjusted terms. Food sales rose 4.1% ($52.4m) whilst non-food rose 4.3% ($125.6m), seasonally adjusted. 

In original terms, the proportion of online food retailing sales to total food retailing fell from 6.6% to 6.0%. The proportion for online non-food retailing sales to total non-food retailing fell from 20.0% to 17.3%. 

In original terms, the proportion of online sales to total retailing fell from 13.1% to 11.6%, back to the same proportion in October 2024 prior to Black Friday sales. This compares to 10.6% in December 2023.

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

Quarterly retail turnover

Per capita retail volumes

Retail volumes on a per capita basis rose 0.5% ($19.3), the first rise in per capita spending since peaking in June quarter 2022. This follows a flat result last quarter which was preceded by eight straight quarterly per capita volumes falls. Despite the rise, retail spending on a per person basis is down 0.9% (-$34.6) compared to this time last year.

Having peaked in the June quarter 2022, retail volumes per capita are down 5.6% (-$227.1) since the peak, but remain up 3.5% ($129.7) compared to the December quarter 2019, the last quarter prior to the pandemic-period.

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.

Data downloads

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  - 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

Black Friday sales and 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

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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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