Victoria led Xmas sales
February 15, 2016
WITH a boost in growth of 5.8%
over the previous year’s data,
Victorian retailers picked up the
highest growth rate in Australia’s
retail sector pre-Christmas sales,
according to figures released by
Roy Morgan Research.
Commissioned by the Australian
Retailers Association (ARA), the
new report showed NSW and Tas
coming in second place with 4.8%
growth followed by ACT at 3.8%,
Qld and SA at 3.2%, WA at 1.7% and
NT 1%.
The national number was 4.2%
prompting ARA executive director
Russell Zimmerman to declare
the figures a stellar result for the
industry at the biggest and busiest
retail trading period of the year.
“This data supports our early
estimates of $46.8b in pre-
Christmas sales, and we happy to
say that our expectations were not
only met, but were exceeded last
Christmas,” Zimmerman said.
The final result was $4.7b, up
$200m from estimates he said.
Household goods sales took the
lead in the category growth stakes,
rising 6.3% on pre-Christmas 2014,
followed by apparel with 5.3%.
Online sales were also robust
for the period with total spend
on e-commerce pre-Christmas
standing at $3.1b.
“While the vast majority of
retailers received a year on
year boost over Christmas,”
Zimmerman said, “It’s important
to note that there were some
pockets, particularly in the smaller
independent sector that our
surveys show may have missed out
on the spending joy.”
Two of the slower performing
states, Qld & WA, were probably
affected by the mining downturn
he said.
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