| Feb-2025 ($m) | Jan-2025 to Feb-2025 (% change) | Feb-2024 to Feb-2025 (% change) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Trend | 37,166.0 | 0.2 | 4.1 |
| Seasonally adjusted | 37,129.4 | 0.2 | 3.6 |
Retail Trade, Australia
Latest release
Monthly and quarterly estimates of turnover and volumes for retail businesses, including store and online sales.
Reference period
February 2025
Released
1/04/2025
Key statistics
The February 2025 seasonally adjusted estimate:
- Rose 0.2% month-on-month.
- Rose 3.6% compared with February 2024.
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 0.6% ($86.1m) in February, in seasonally adjusted terms.
By industry subgroup, the seasonally adjusted estimate:
- rose 0.6% ($74.0m) for Supermarket and grocery stores.
- rose 0.8% ($9.2m) for Other specialised food retailing.
- rose 0.2% ($2.8m) for Liquor 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.
Household goods retailing
Household goods retailing fell 0.3% (-$19.5m) in February, in seasonally adjusted terms.
By industry subgroup, the seasonally adjusted estimate:
- fell 1.6% (-$25.9m) for Furniture, floor coverings, houseware and textile goods retailing.
- fell 0.1% (-$2.2m) for Hardware, building and garden supplies retailing.
- rose 0.4% ($8.5m) for Electrical and electronic 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 rose 0.4% ($12.8m) in February, in seasonally adjusted terms.
By industry subgroup, the seasonally adjusted estimate:
- rose 0.8% ($15.7m) for Clothing retailing.
- fell 0.3% (-$3.0m) 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 1.5% ($28.4m) in February, 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 1.0% (-$58.2m) in February, in seasonally adjusted terms.
By industry subgroup, the seasonally adjusted estimate:
- fell 2.1% (-$56.1m) for Other retailing n.e.c..
- fell 1.7% (-$11.3m) for Other recreational goods retailing.
- fell 2.7% (-$4.3m) for Newspaper and book retailing.
- rose 0.6% ($13.5m) for Pharmaceutical, cosmetic and toiletry 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.
Cafes, restaurants and takeaway food services
Cafes, restaurants and takeaway food services rose 0.2% ($12.9m) in February, in seasonally adjusted terms.
By industry subgroup, the seasonally adjusted estimate:
- rose 1.5% ($31.4m) for Takeaway food services.
- fell 0.5% (-$18.5m) 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 $4,507.8m in February 2025, in seasonally adjusted terms. Seasonally adjusted online sales rose 1.7% ($73.5m), following a rise of 0.4% ($16.8m) in January 2025. Seasonally adjusted through-the-year sales are up 12.2% ($491.0m).
Original online sales fell 9.1% (-$375.2m) in February 2025 compared to a fall of 9.5% (-$3,425.0m) in original total sales.
In February 2025, food online sales were $1,326.4m and non-food online sales were $3,181.5m, in seasonally adjusted terms. Food sales rose 0.2% ($2.7m) whilst non-food rose 2.3% ($71.0m), seasonally adjusted.
In original terms, the proportion of online food retailing sales to total food retailing rose from 6.3% to 6.4%. The proportion for online non-food retailing sales to total non-food retailing rose from 17.8% to 18.1%.
In original terms, the proportion of online sales to total retailing rose from 11.4% to 11.5%. This compares to 10.7% in February 2024.
Additional notes regarding the online sales series can be found in the Methodology.
Data downloads
From the March quarter 2025, the Survey of Consumer Sales time series spreadsheets (Table 17 & 18) will be published as part of Business Indicators, Australia (cat. no. 5676.0), with the first release on 3 June 2025. This is in line with the future cessation of the Retail Trade publication on 31 July 2025.
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
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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
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.