Australia: Online sales contract in September - NAB

Alan Oster, Group Chief Economist at NAB, notes that in seasonally adjusted terms, at -0.6%, growth in Australia’s online retail sales contacted in September, down from a considerably strong +1.4% in August.

Key Quotes

“The revised estimate for trend online retail sales growth was 0.5%.”

“In the 12 months to November,  we estimate that Australians spent an estimated $23.4 billion on online retail – a level that is equivalent to around 7.6% of the traditional bricks and mortar retail sector (August 2017 - Australian Bureau of Statistics).”

“In year on year terms (September 2017 v September 2016), online sales grew by 6.0%, down from the 10.2% year-on-year growth in August.”

“While monthly sales growth of SMEs also contracted (-0.1%), this was more mild than their corporate peers.”