Australia's retail turnover rises 0.7% in May 2023: ABS

The sector seeing the largest surge was other retailing, which recorded a significant 2.2 per cent rise. The turnover growth was driven by a combination of factors, including an early start to some end of financial year sales events, Mother’s Day, and the popular Click Frenzy Mayhem sales event.

Clothing, footwear, and personal accessory retailing witnessed a decrease of 0.6 per cent, and department stores saw a 0.5 per cent fall. This downward trend contrasted with the rise seen in April, which was attributed to increased spending on clothing items due to unusually cool and wet weather conditions, as per the ABS.

Geographically, retail turnover increased across most Australian states and territories. The Northern Territory led the pack with a substantial 1.6 per cent increase, reaching its highest level. In contrast, Tasmania was the only region to see a drop in turnover, with a slight decline of 0.1 per cent.

“This latest rise reflected some resilience in spending with consumers taking advantage of larger than usual promotional activity and sales events for May. Just as we saw during the November Black Friday sales last year, consumers appeared to take extra advantage of discounting during large sales events in May in response to cost-of-living pressures,” said Ben Dorber, ABS head of retail statistics.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DP)