In the year to September 2013, Australia’s online retail spending totalled $14.3 billion. This amount is equivalent to 6.3% of the traditional bricks & mortar retail sector (excluding cafés, restaurants and takeaway food to create a like-for-like comparison) in the twelve months to August 2013.
The NAB Online Retail Sales Index rose in September – up to 230 points (on a seasonally adjusted basis) from 226 points in August.
Growth in online retail sales was marginally stronger in September (following a sharp slowdown in August). In monthly terms, seasonally adjusted sales rose by +0.3% (on a three month moving average basis, to reduce the volatility in monthly rates) – compared with -0.1% in August.
Sales growth for traditional bricks & mortar retail was unchanged in August – at +0.1% (on a seasonally adjusted, three month moving average basis), the same level as July.
Online sales trends remain quite mixed at the sub-sector level. In year-on-year terms, the rates of growth edged up to 10.7% – the second slowest rate of growth observed in the index (from 9.1% in August – the slowest rate). Year-on-year growth was observed in Media, Groceries & Liquor, Department & Variety Stores and Fashion, while sales contracted in Personal & Recreational Goods, Daily Deals, Homewares & Appliances and Toys & Electronic Games.
The index tracks both local and international online sales (about a 70/30 split). I had a chat with Alan Oster and he clarified that there was no obvious divergence between the two in the slowdown. It’s the general environment not the dollar. Of course September may prove to be the perigee given the election, or not.
David Llewellyn-Smith is Chief Strategist at the MB Fund and MB Super. David is the founding publisher and editor of MacroBusiness and was the founding publisher and global economy editor of The Diplomat, the Asia Pacific's leading geo-politics and economics portal.
He is also a former gold trader and economic commentator at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, the ABC and Business Spectator. He is the co-author of The Great Crash of 2008 with Ross Garnaut and was the editor of the second Garnaut Climate Change Review.
