Monthly and quarterly estimates of turnover and volumes for retail businesses, including store and online sales.
The March 2021 seasonally adjusted estimate:
| Mar-2021 ($m) | Feb-2021 to Mar-2021 (% change) | Mar-2020 to Mar-2021 (% change) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Trend | na | na | na |
| Seasonally Adjusted | 30,699.6 | 1.3 | 2.2 |
na not available
| March Qtr 2021 ($m) | December Qtr 2020 to March Qtr 2021 (% change) | March Qtr 2020 to March Qtr 2021 (% change) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Trend | na | na | na |
| Seasonally Adjusted | 86,393.3 | -0.5 | 4.7 |
To understand more about any changes in this issue, suspension of trend estimates, and COVID-19 in March, please read the survey impacts and changes.
Food retailing fell 0.9% (-$116.4m) in March, in seasonally adjusted terms.
By industry subgroup, the seasonally adjusted estimate:
Household goods retailing fell 0.1% (-$4.0m) in March, in seasonally adjusted terms.
By industry subgroup, the seasonally adjusted estimate:
Clothing, footwear and personal accessory retailing rose 5.4% ($128.6m) in March, in seasonally adjusted terms.
By industry subgroup, the seasonally adjusted estimate:
Department stores rose 8.5% ($141.7m) in March, in seasonally adjusted terms.
Other retailing rose 1.4% ($62.8m) in March, in seasonally adjusted terms.
By industry subgroup, the seasonally adjusted estimate:
Cafes, restaurants and takeaway food services rose 4.8% ($186.3m) in March, in seasonally adjusted terms.
By industry subgroup, the seasonally adjusted estimate:
There are no revisions to the original estimates.
This issue includes updated online retail turnover estimates for the March 2021 reference month.
This month also includes updated per capita data, included in the Data Downloads section of this publication.
An Annual Seasonal Reanalysis was completed for the Implicit Price Deflator (IPD), used in the creation of Quarterly Seasonally Adjusted Chain Volume Measures (CVM). This has led to minor revisions in the Quarterly CVM and IPD series.
The trend series attempts to measure underlying behaviour in retail activity. In the short term, this measurement will be significantly affected by changes to regular patterns in retail spending that will occur during the Coronavirus pandemic. If the trend estimates in this publication were to be calculated without fully accounting for irregular events, they would likely provide a misleading view of underlying retail activity.
The retail trend series was therefore suspended from February 2020, and now published only to June 2019. The trend series will be reinstated when more certainty emerges in the underlying trend in retail.
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.
In July 2020, Victoria saw increased regulations, especially in Melbourne, that remained in place for much of August through to the end of October last year.
Recent changes to restrictions include those introduced to Perth and some regional areas of Western Australia from 31 January 2021 through to 5 February 2021. Victoria also saw statewide Stage 4 restrictions in force from 12 February 2021 through to 16 February 2021.
In March 2021, the Greater Brisbane region in Queensland saw restrictions reintroduced on 29 March which continued until the end of the month.
This release previously used catalogue number 8501.0.
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