Retail

Clothing & footwear retailing in Australia down 13.1% in Dec 2022

01 Feb '23

2 min read

Pic: Shutterstock/ Catrina Haze

Australian retail turnover fell 3.9 per cent in December 2022 following a 1.7 per cent rise in November 2022, as per the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). Department stores had the largest fall, (-14.3 per cent), followed by clothing, footwear, and personal accessory retailing (-13.1 per cent) among other types of retailing.

Previously boosted by November Black Friday sales, retail turnover fell across all states and territories, with the majority down by more than 3.0 per cent, according to data from the ABS.

Ben Dorber, ABS head of retail statistics, said: “This is the first monthly fall in retail turnover for 2022, following eleven consecutive monthly rises. Retail turnover remains elevated at its sixth highest level in the series and was up 7.5 per cent through the year.

“The large fall in December suggests that retail spending is slowing due to high cost-of-living pressures. Retail businesses reported that many consumers had responded to these pressures by doing more Christmas shopping in November to take advantage of heavy promotional activity and discounting as part of the Black Friday sales event.”

“Seasonal spending patterns continue to change and evolve around Black Friday and the holiday period. While there was a strong rise in original terms for December, as is expected in the lead up to Christmas, this year’s rise in original terms was smaller than those typically seen in past December months. This has led to the large seasonally adjusted fall. The latest Consumer Price Index showed that prices continued to rise strongly in the December quarter,” added Dorber.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (NB)

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