Clothing footwear and accessories retail turnover declined 1.1% in January according to the latest data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
This decline follows a 1.5% decline for the sector in December 2019.
Department stores also suffered a blow in January, slipping 2.2% in the month.
Overall, Australian retail turnover delcined 0.3% in January, following a decline of 0.7% in December.
ABS director of quarterly economy-wide surveys Ben James put the results down to the bushfires.
"Bushfires in January negatively impacted a range of retail businesses across a variety of industries.
"Retailers reported a range of impacts that reduced customer numbers, including interruptions to trading hours and tourism.
"There were falls for household goods retailing (-1.1%), department stores (-2.2%), clothing, footwear and personal accessory retailing (-1.1%), cafes, restaurants and takeaway food services (-0.3%), and other retailing (-0.1%).
"These falls were partially offset by a rise in food retailing (0.4%)," he said.
Geographically, the bushfires had a clear impact across the states, with all declining in December aside from South Australia which rose 0.1%.
The ACT experienced the biggest decline of the states, with retail turnover slipping 2.3% in January.
Online retail turnover contributed 6.3% to total retail turnover in January 2020. In January 2019, online retail turnover contributed 5.6% to total retail.