Black Friday sales drive up Australia’s November retail turnover

Retail turnover climbed by 1.4% during the month.

Retail turnover grew by 1.4% in November from only 0.4 in the previous month, largely due to the Black Friday sales, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) reported.

“While we typically see a rise in spending around Black Friday sales, the strong seasonally adjusted rise in November 2022 shows that the effect is increasing over time, as the event has become more common across retailers and sales periods become longer,” Ben Dorber, ABS head of retail statistics, said.

“Given the increasing popularity of Black Friday sales, the smaller increase in October may reflect consumers waiting to take advantage of discounting in November, particularly in light of cost-of-living pressures.”

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In particular, ABS noted that clothing, footwear, and personal accessory retailing registered the largest increase (+6.4%), following slower growth in recent months. Department stores also had a strong growth of +5.4%, whilst household goods retailing rose 2.1%, led by furniture retailing. Other retailing also recorded a rise, up 1.1%.

Meanwhile, growth in food-related spending has slowed considerably with food retailing and cafes, restaurants, and takeaway food services both recording a small rise of 0.1%

“The monthly growth in turnover for cafes, restaurants, and takeaway food services in November was the weakest in 2022 following strong growth earlier in the year as trading conditions returned to normal,” Dorber said.