The NAB Online Retail Sales Index provides key insights into online spending in the retail goods space, capturing domestic and international trends, as well as regional and age demographic trends. It’s a unique tool based on up to 2 million non-cash transactions per day, scaled up to replicate the broader economy.

With traditional sales totalling $220 billion in the year ended June 2012, online retail spending at $11.7 billion now represents 5.3% of the traditional sector. Both have experienced strong growth rates in recent months – 25% and 4.9%, respectively.

Domestic sales growth increased by 24% year-on-year in July. But international sales really surged – growing by 29% yearon-year. Domestic retailers remain the dominant force in online retail sales, but trends in individual categories remain quite divergent – the Household Goods & Electronics and Toys & Media sectors have been weak given these products are typically more discretionary in nature.

Those aged in the 30s and 40s continue to click and buy with enthusiasm. While the under 30s are lagging, they are buying from international retailers – around one-third of their spending is international, compared with around one-quarter for the other groups. Regional Western Australia is still supporting online growth, recording 37% year-on-year per capita growth, and online sales in the state have outperformed the rest of the country, thanks to buyers in their 30s, 40s and 50s.

This snapshot is just a taste of the detailed information the NAB Online Retail Sales Index provides.

For further analysis download the full report.

• NAB Online Retail Sales Index: In depth report – July 2012 (PDF 1.7MB)

Take a glance at an infographic of the results. (JPG 384KB)

For more information, call your NAB Relationship Manager or contact:

Alan Oster
Group Chief Economist
National Australia Bank
+61 (0) 3 8634 2927
Alan.Oster@nab.com.au

David Thorn
Managing Director
Head of Consumer Sectors
NAB Institutional Banking
+61 (0) 2 9237 1249
David.A.Thorn@nab.com.au