• The index accelerated on a month-on-month, seasonally adjusted basis in February (1.3%), with January revised slightly higher (0.2%, was 0.0%). 
• Growth also accelerated, albeit slightly, in year-on-year terms (13.2% y/y), after rapid growth in the strong trading period over November and December.
• Month-on-month growth by category in February was generally positive except for personal and recreational goods, media, and takeaway food. Mid-size sales category, fashion, which recorded consecutive monthly contractions after rapid growth in November, led growth in February. Fashion also accelerated in year-on-year terms. Large sales category, homewares and appliances also rebounded, with growth slightly slower than the overall. While slowing, department stores continue to record the strongest growth in year-on-year terms.
• Growth recorded for all states this month except WA, which had recorded growth in each of the previous ten, and NT. For WA, falls in large sales category, homewares and appliances, along with personal and rec goods contributed heavily to the result for that state. Grocery and liquor, and fashion, were key differences between QLD and the other large sales states.
• In year-on-year terms, while metro growth continued to outpace regional, with the gap widening slightly in February, there is less than a percentage point between the two.
• After a contraction in January, both international and domestic retailers returned to growth in February, with the rebound for the former stronger relative to the latter, given a larger contraction in January. In year-on-year terms, international retailers accelerated while domestic slowed slightly.
• NAB estimates that in the 12 months to February, Australians spent $61.2 billion on online retail, a level that is around 14% of the total retail trade estimate (January 2025, Series 8501, Australian Bureau of Statistics), with 12 months to growth (10.8%) continuing to improve.

NAB Chief Economist, Sally Auld commented:

After a relatively subdued past couple of months, fairly broad-based growth was recorded in February. In my first online retail note as chief economist, I thought it might be good to put this in brief perspective for the series that we’ve been producing since 2012.  Taking a smooth 12 month moving sum of the overall series, if we set the base of the index to January 2013, the index is now at 520 points, or 5.2 times its original base. By way of comparison, using the same metric, broader ABS retail trade is at 170 points or 1.7 times the value in 2013. In 2012, online retail was estimated at just over 4% of overall retail trade. For the monthly comparison, during the pandemic period, this neared 18% and subsequently eased with post pandemic reopening. It is now climbing again, in a far more sustained, less volatile trend, currently at ~14%. It is worth noting that the gradient post-covid is slightly steeper relative to the pre-covid period, implying that the move towards online spending during the covid period has been sustained.

Get all the insights in the NAB Online Retail Sales Index – (February 2025)