Retail Trade, Australia

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

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Reference period
October 2023
Released
28/11/2023
  • Next Release 9/01/2024
    Retail Trade, Australia, November 2023
  • Next Release 30/01/2024
    Retail Trade, Australia, December 2023
  • Next Release 6/02/2024
    Retail Trade, Australia, December 2023
  • View all releases

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.

Download all (4.33 MB)

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

The ABS intends to cease the Retail Business Survey and Retail Trade Publication to balance organisational priorities of producing timely statistics using new data sources and reducing the burden ABS surveys place on the business community. Retail Trade statistics are often used as an early indicator of household consumption. However, retail trade has been declining as a proportion of total household consumption. Retail Trade coverage has fallen from 56.2% of household consumption in 1959-60 to 33.2% in 2022-23.

The last release of the Retail Trade Publication is expected to be in August 2025, referencing the June 2025 period.

Users will be able to access more comprehensive monthly data on household consumption from the ABS’ Monthly Household Spending Indicator (MHSI). This indicator provides an early read on household spending, covering around 68% of household consumption, compared to the 33% covered by the Retail Trade data. Alongside the MHSI, the Monthly Business Turnover Indicator (MBTI) also provides a frequent and timely indicator of economic activity in important parts of the economy. Both indicators make use of administrative data from the private and public sectors, reducing burden on businesses while continuing to produce important economic indicators.

The ABS will be working with data users to enhance the MHSI and MBTI to make sure these indicators provide the information users need before Retail Trade, Australia ceases in August 2025. More Information about this transition can be found on the Future cessation of the Retail Business Survey and Retail Trade Publication webpage or through contacting us at household.spending@abs.gov.au.

Changes in this issue

The original estimates for the Survey of Consumer Sales - Electricity Retailing series have been revised for the June 2023 quarter as a result of updated source data.

Revisions to seasonally adjusted estimates are due to the revisions to original estimates and concurrent methodology for deriving seasonal factors. For information on seasonal adjustment please refer to the explanatory notes of this publication.

Trend series

The trend series attempts to measure underlying behaviour in retail activity.

During the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the trend series was significantly affected by larges changes to regular patterns in retail spending. Trend estimates for all series from March 2020 to June 2022 will not be published. The degree of disruption caused by COVID-19 on Retail turnover during this span means that trend estimates are likely to be unhelpful and may be misleading for users throughout the pandemic period. 

While seasonally adjusted estimates are the headline measure for retail activity, it is recommended that the trend series be used alongside the seasonally adjusted series to analyse and understand underlying activity in retail spending over the longer term.

Estimates of the trend will be improved at the current end of the time series as additional observations become available. This improvement is due to the application of different asymmetric moving averages for the most recent six months for monthly series and three quarters for quarterly series. As a result of the improvement, most revisions to the trend estimates will be observed in the most recent six months or three quarters.

For further information on trend estimation, please refer to the seasonal adjustment and trend estimation methodology of this publication.

Differences between Retail Trade and other Economic Indicators

Monthly Household Spending Indicator

The ABS first released the Monthly Household Spending Indicator on Tuesday 22 February 2022. Enhancements to the Monthly Household Spending Indicator (MHSI) will enable the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) to cease publication of Retail Trade, Australia in August 2025, providing users with a more comprehensive view on household consumption.

The Monthly Household Spending Indicator is derived using aggregated, de-identified banks transactions data from some of Australia’s banking and financial institutions.

The ABS transforms the banks transactions data in order to derive the Monthly Household Spending Indicator. As this data is not designed for statistical purposes, its scope varies from Australian National Accounts concept of household final consumption expenditure (HFCE) and the Retail Trade turnover estimates for retail businesses.

The primary difference between the Retail Trade Survey and the household spending indicator is scope. The Retail Trade Survey focuses on measuring turnover, from sole traders and businesses across the Retail industry that predominantly sell to households. The Household spending indicator is recorded at the point of transaction on goods and services across all relevant industries, not just retail, to track a broader range of consumer spending.

For more information on how the Retail Trade Survey and new experimental monthly household spending indicator differ please see Comparison with Retail Trade and Monthly Household Spending Indicator, Methodology.

Monthly Business Turnover Indicator

The ABS first released the Monthly Business Turnover Indicator on Friday 15 October 2021 and includes an indicator for Retail Trade.

This experimental indicator is derived from Australian Taxation Office (ATO) Business Activity Statements (BAS) turnover data from monthly BAS remitters. This differs from Retail Trade, Australia in terms of scope and coverage. Monthly BAS reporting for the Monthly Business Turnover Indicator covers businesses with GST annual turnover of $20 million or more and a proportion of smaller businesses that report monthly on a voluntary basis. The turnover estimates in Retail Trade, Australia are compiled from the monthly Retail Business Survey. About 700 'large' businesses are included in the survey every month, while a sample of about 2,700 'smaller' businesses is selected. The 'large' business' contribution of approximately 69% of the total estimate ensures a highly reliable Australian total turnover estimate.

Retail Trade for the Monthly Business Turnover Indicator is aligned strictly to the Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification (ANZSIC), 2006. This includes Fuel and motor vehicle retailing but excludes Cafes, restaurants and takeaways. Retail Trade, Australia does include Cafes, restaurants and takeaways, but does not include Fuel and motor vehicle retailing.

For further information see Monthly Business Turnover Indicator, Methodology.

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

Media releases