Retail Trade, Australia

Latest release

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

Reference period
May 2025

Key statistics

The May 2025 seasonally adjusted estimate: 

  • Rose 0.2% month-on-month.
  • Rose 3.3% compared with May 2024.

Retail Business Survey and Retail Trade Publication Cessation

The previously announced cessation of the Retail Business Survey and Retail Trade Publications is approaching. The last release of the Retail Trade Publication will be on 31 July 2025, referencing the June 2025 period. For more information, please visit survey impacts and changes and the Future cessation of the Retail Business Survey and Retail Trade Publication webpage.

Turnover at current prices
May-2025 ($m)Apr-2025 to May-2025 (% change)May-2024 to May-2025 (% change)
Trend37,304.50.13.5
Seasonally adjusted37,293.00.23.3

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 fell 0.4% (-$56.7m) in May, in seasonally adjusted terms.

By industry subgroup, the seasonally adjusted estimate:

  • fell 0.4% (-$45.5m) for Supermarket and grocery stores.
  • fell 1.3% (-$19.4m) for Liquor retailing.
  • rose 0.7% ($8.2m) for Other specialised food 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 was relatively unchanged 0.0% ($2.7m) in May, in seasonally adjusted terms.

By industry subgroup, the seasonally adjusted estimate:

  • rose 1.0% ($21.4m) for Hardware, building and garden supplies retailing.
  • rose 0.4% ($6.4m) for Furniture, floor coverings, houseware and textile goods retailing.
  • fell 1.1% (-$25.1m) 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 2.9% ($87.5m) in May, in seasonally adjusted terms.

By industry subgroup, the seasonally adjusted estimate:

  • rose 3.5% ($70.2m) for Clothing retailing.
  • rose 1.8% ($17.3m) 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 2.6% ($49.0m) in May, 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 0.2% (-$13.7m) in May, in seasonally adjusted terms.

By industry subgroup, the seasonally adjusted estimate:

  • fell 0.6% (-$14.6m) for Other retailing n.e.c..
  • fell 2.1% (-$13.7m) for Other recreational goods retailing.
  • rose 0.1% ($0.2m) for Newspaper and book retailing.
  • rose 0.6% ($14.4m) 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 was relatively unchanged 0.0% (-$0.3m) in May, in seasonally adjusted terms.

By industry subgroup, the seasonally adjusted estimate:

  • was relatively unchanged 0.0% (-$0.2m) for Cafes, restaurants and catering services.
  • was relatively unchanged 0.0% (-$0.1m) 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 $4,492.1m in May 2025, in seasonally adjusted terms. Seasonally adjusted online sales fell 0.6% (-$25.4m), following a rise of 0.4% ($15.9m) in April 2025. Seasonally adjusted through-the-year sales are up 8.4% ($348.7m). 

Original online sales rose 8.6% ($347.3m) in May 2025 compared to a rise of 4.3% ($1,524.8m) in original total sales.

In May 2025, food online sales were $1,409.9m and non-food online sales were $3,082.2m, in seasonally adjusted terms. Food sales rose 0.7% ($9.5m), whilst non-food fell 1.1% (-$34.9m), seasonally adjusted.

In original terms, the proportion of online food retailing sales to total food retailing rose from 6.6% to 6.9%. The proportion for online non-food retailing sales to total non-food retailing rose from 17.6% to 17.9%.

In original terms, the proportion of online sales to total retailing rose from 11.4% to 11.9%. This compares to 11.4% in May 2024.

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

Data downloads

The Survey of Consumer Sales time series spreadsheets (Table 17 & 18) are no longer included in this release. These are now be published as part of Business Indicators, Australia (cat. no. 5676.0), with March quarter 2025 released 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

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

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.

View full methodology
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