Online sales rose 0.7 per cent in November 2015

•  The latest seasonally adjusted NAB online retail sales index shows sales grew 0.7% in November, an improvement on the contraction in October (-0.6%). At 0.3%, the trend estimate for online retail sales was the same as the previous month, and only slightly lower than September (0.4%), suggesting that looking through the month to month volatility, sales are still growing.

• ABS data showed growth of comparable traditional retailers (ex. cafes and restaurants) in October to be 0.7% (mom, s.a.) higher than September, and 4.5% higher than a year ago. At 11.4% over the year, growth in online retail is more than double that of traditional retail sales.

• In dollar terms, we estimate Australians spent $18.1 billion on online retail in the 12 months to November 2015. This level is equivalent to 7.3% of spending at traditional bricks & mortar retailers as measured by the ABS (excluding cafes, restaurants and takeaway food, to create a like-for-like comparison) in the 12 months to October 2015.

• By category, all sectors except Daily deals (-9.8% yoy) had sales higher than last November. In year on year terms, growth was highest for electronic games and toys (+36.1% yoy from 32.4% yoy in October). This category still represents a relatively small share of spend at around 2.9%, and is the most volatile category series given sales associated with the timing of electronic game releases. Sales growth in the next fastest growing category, Media, accelerated slightly (23.2%, yoy, from 21.2% yoy in October), along with Fashion (14.1% yoy vs 10.6% yoy in October), and a rebound in growth for Homewares and Appliances (11.1% yoy vs -2% yoy in October), and Department & Variety stores (8.3% yoy vs 1.7% yoy in October). Despite high single digit growth, Grocery and Liquor (7.1% yoy vs 5.9% yoy in October) was the second slowest. At 9.3% (yoy) the growth rate for Personal and Recreational was virtually unchanged.

For further details please see the attached document.

• Online Retail Sales Index monthly update – November 2015(PDF,82KB)

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