Department stores and ‘clothing, footwear and accessories’ sales have both lifted by 3.6 per cent and 2 per cent respectively in July, new Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) data revealed.
Department stores sales were up $65.1 million to $1.87 billion, while fashion hit $2.95 billion, up $56.7 million.
It is a swing back from large losses in both industries in June, when department stores plunged by nearly $100 million, and fashion down $64.5 million.
Despite the uptick, year-on-year (YoY) fashion and department store sales dipped by 0.3 per cent and 0.05 per cent respectively in July.
Trend estimates indicate that both industries’ sales have trended down since late 2022, with both hitting peak sales in November 2022. Clothing, footwear and personal accessories’ hit $3.1 billion in November while department stores nudged past $2 billion in monthly sales.
However, overall retail sales increased just 2.1 per cent YoY in July, with a month-on-month lift overall of 0.5 per cent to $35.3 billion, driven by sales in both food and cafes, restaurants and takeaway.
Australian Retailers Association (ARA) CEO Paul Zahra said the rises in food spending are mainly driven by unavoidable price increases.
“Retail sales data is showing a clear delineation between spending on essentials and discretionary goods, with food continuing to record growth mainly due to unavoidable price increases while other categories remained in decline,” Zahra said.
“While spending on takeaway continues to be reasonable – shoppers are likely opting for value options such as quick service restaurants to ease pressure on their budgets.
“Shoppers are becoming increasingly conscious of cutting back on spending, making it a challenging time to be a discretionary retailer."
Zahra said fashion retailers have held quite significant sales events this year to clear winter inventory and to entice bargain-hunting shoppers.
Meanwhile, ABS head of retail statistics Ben Dorber said the month-on-month rise in July is a partial reversal of June's sharp decline in turnover, and comes after weaker-than-usual end of financial year sales.
The overall rise in July follows a 0.8 per cent fall in June 2023 and a 0.8 per cent rise in May 2023.
“While there was a rise in July, underlying growth in retail turnover remained subdued,” Dorber said. “In trend terms, retail turnover was unchanged in July and up only 1.9 per cent compared to July 2022, despite considerable price growth over the year.”
Household goods was the only non-food industry to record a fall at 0.2 per cent, or $10.3 million to 5.7 billion - the eighth monthly fall in turnover in the past 12 months, and down from its November 2022 peak of $6.25 billion.
Food-related spending has been trending up.
“Cafes, restaurants and takeaway food services turnover grew considerably, despite an overall slowing down in food-related spending in recent months,” Dorber said.
“The rise in July was boosted by additional spending at catering and takeaway food outlets linked to the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup and school holidays.”
Retail turnover was mixed across the states and territories, with New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland and the Australian Capital Territory rising in July after large falls in June.
