Retail Turnover Increases 2.7% in June

“The June month saw the continued recovery of industries impacted by trading restrictions in April and early May,” said Ben James, Director of Quarterly Economy Wide Surveys.

This follows an increase of 16.9 percent in May 2020. “There were large month-on-month rises in cafes, restaurants and takeaway food services (27.9 percent), and clothing, footwear and personal accessory retailing (20.5 percent),” James said.

Online retail ‘remains elevated’, the report has found. Overall, e-commerce accounts for 9.7 percent of total retail sales in June 2020 – online contributed 6.1 percent in June 2019.

Retail volumes fell 3.4 percent in the June quarter 2020, seasonally adjusted. This fall follows an increase of 0.7 percent in May 2020.

“Despite monthly rises in May and June 2020, the June quarter saw the largest fall in seasonally adjusted retail volumes since the introduction of the GST in the September quarter 2000,” James explained.

“The quarterly fall was driven by falls in cafes, restaurants and takeaway food services (-29.1 percent), and clothing, footwear and personal accessory retailing (-22.0 percent), which both saw very large falls in April. There were also falls in food retailing (-1.6 percent) following a March quarter rise, and Other retailing (-0.7 percent),” he said.

There has been an increase in household goods retailing of 14.6 percent, with ‘high consumer demand’ across furniture, electrical goods and hardware. Furthermore, department stores increased by 0.1 percent, seasonally adjusted.

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