Retail Trade, Australia

Latest release

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

Cite
Print
Reference period
July 2023
Released
28/08/2023
  • Next Release 28/09/2023
    Retail Trade, Australia, August 2023
  • Next Release 6/10/2023
    Retail Trade, Australia, August 2023
  • Next Release 30/10/2023
    Retail Trade, Australia, September 2023
  • View all releases

Key statistics

The July 2023 seasonally adjusted estimate: 

  • Rose 0.5% month-on-month.
  • Rose 2.1% compared with July 2022.

An additional information release on 1 September 2023 has seen the inclusion of more detailed results for the July 2023 reference period. Additional timeseries spreadsheets have been published, including; state by industry results, state by industry sub-group results, previously published June quarter 2023 quarterly turnover volumes, and online sales. 

To understand more about changes in this issue, reinstating trend estimates, and COVID-19, please read the survey impacts and changes section below.

Turnover at current prices
Jul-2023 ($m)Jun-2023 to Jul-2023 (% change)Jul-2022 to Jul-2023 (% change)
Trend35,368.40.01.9
Seasonally adjusted35,383.30.52.1

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 was relatively unchanged 0.0% (-$6.4m) in July, 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 0.2% (-$10.3m) in July, 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 2.0% ($56.7m) in July, 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 3.6% ($65.1m) in July, 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 0.3% ($15.6m) in July, 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 rose 1.3% ($68.4m) in July, 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 $3,622.1m in July 2023, in seasonally adjusted terms. Seasonally adjusted online sales fell 7.4 per cent (-$288.3m), following a fall of 0.4 per cent (-$15.0m) in June 2023. Seasonally adjusted through-the-year sales are down 0.6 per cent (-$22.5m).

Original sales in July 2023 fell by 3.9 per cent (-$144.4m).

In July 2023, food online sales were $1,081.2m and non-food online sales were $2,540.9m, in seasonally adjusted terms. Food sales fell 4.6 per cent (-$51.8m) whilst non-food fell 8.5 per cent (-$236.5m).

In original terms, the proportion of online food retailing sales to total food retailing was unchanged at 5.9 per cent. The proportion for online non-food retailing sales to total non-food retailing fell from 17.0 per cent to 16.4 per cent.

In original terms, the proportion of online sales to total retailing fell from 11.0 per cent in June 2023 to 10.5 per cent in July 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 1 September 2023. This includes June 2023 quarterly results for consumer sales of energy retailing and communications services. Tables 1 through to 4 remain unchanged from their release on 28 August 2023.

Download all (4.31 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

The release schedule for Retail Trade, Australia

Following the June 2021 reference period,  Retail Trade, Australia (8501.0) moved to the following release schedule to better accommodate data users’ needs.

Key statistics from Retail Trade, Australia are now released 20 working days following the end of the reference period. The full suite of statistics to be made available in an “Additional Information” release four business days later. 

This replaces the former release schedule where all time series spreadsheets were released approximately 24 working days following the end of the reference period.

Timing and availability of time series spreadsheets
ReleaseTimingTablesContent
Main Release (i.e. key statistics)20 working days following the end of the reference period1 - 4 Monthly National Turnover
   Monthly Industry Turnover
   Monthly State Turnover
Additional Tables4 working days following the main release5 - 23Monthly State by Industry Turnover
   Monthly Sub-Group Turnover
   Monthly State by Sub-Group Turnover
   Quarterly Volumes and other quarterly statistics
   Online Sales

 

There are no changes to the availability of data for this publication.  Time series spreadsheet numbering and names, as well as Series IDs remain the same as previously published.

Both of the monthly releases will be based on the same source data. No additional data collection activity will occur between these times.

The ABS will continue to quality assure data between both releases. Revisions to the key statistics anticipated to be rare.

Dates for future releases are available under ‘Future releases’ from the top of this page. There are two advertised dates for each reference period. The earliest date refers to the release of Tables 1 through to 4. The later date indicates when the additional tables (5 through to 23) will be made available.

Changes in this issue

There are no revisions to the original estimates.

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

Reinstating trend series

The ABS has suspended the publication of Retail Trade Trend estimates since February 2020, due to the large and volatile changes in retail activity during the COVID-19 period.

After reverting to concurrent seasonal adjustment in the November 2022 release and following analysis of the time series, the ABS reinstated Retail Trade Trend estimates in the June 2023 reference period from July 2022 onwards. Trend estimates for all series from March 2020 to June 2022 will not be published.

The trend series attempts to measure underlying behaviour in retail activity. During the Coronavirus pandemic, the trend series was significantly affected by larges changes to regular patterns in retail spending. 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.

Coronavirus (COVID-19)

The World Health Organisation identified COVID-19 as an international health emergency on 30 January 2020.

In March 2020, nationwide regulations were introduced to encourage physical distancing which impacted the ability of businesses to trade as normal. Movement across state borders were also restricted.

Following May 2020, regulations were implemented on a local state and territory basis in response to increased case numbers. In June 2020, Victoria re-introduced restrictions and lockdown measures which extended until October 2020.

Throughout 2021, a number of wide-ranging COVID-19 safety measures and lockdown restrictions were in place across Australia. Most notably there were extended lockdowns in New South Wales, Victoria and the Australian Capital Territory from June 2021 to October 2021. For a detailed breakdown of restrictions throughout 2021, please refer to Coronavirus (COVID-19) in December in Survey impacts and changes section of the December 2021 release.

For a detailed breakdown of restrictions throughout 2022, please refer to Coronavirus (COVID-19) in May in Survey impacts and changes section of the May 2022 release and follow monthly links.

Since May 2022, the only major changes to existing COVID-19 safety measures impacting on Retail Trade was the reduction of mandatory isolation for people who test positive for COVID-19 from seven days to five days from September 9, 2022.

From October 14, 2022, every state and territory ended its public mandate for five days of isolation, except for people who work in high-risk settings such as health and aged care, who are still required to isolate. 

Differences between Retail Trade and New Experimental Economic Indicators

Monthly Business Turnover Indicator

The ABS first released the Monthly Business Turnover Indicator on Friday 15 October 2021. The first in a series of new monthly economic indicators which 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.

Monthly Household Spending Indicator

The ABS first released the Monthly Household Spending Indicator on Tuesday 22 February 2022.

The experimental 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.

Post release changes

Post release changes

01/09/2023 - As advertised in the main release of this publication on 28 August 2023, the time series spreadsheets for tables 5 through to 23 are now available under the Data Downloads section. This includes:

  • July monthly results for State by Industry Subgroup, Completely Enumerated (large) and Sample (small) businesses, and Online Retail Turnover. 
  • June quarter 2023 results, available in tables 5 through to 10. These results have been published previously. 
  • June 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