The recently released NAB Online Retail Sales Index for November 2016 has shown that Australian consumers splashed around $21.4 billion over the 12 months from November 2015 to November 2016.
As usual, there was a significant boost in original sales for November 2016, due mainly to seasonal factors such as the beginning of the Christmas trade period.
The year-on-year growth did slow for November 2016 – down from 14.1% to 13.3% – and the revised trend estimate for retail sales has dropped from 0.8% to 0.6%.
This was in part due to sluggish spending figures in the two large categories of Homeware & Appliances and Media; along with smaller spending in Food Catering and Games & Toys.
The positive result in original sales for online retail gives the NRA confidence that the Christmas trade figures will reflect our prediction of a record spend for Christmas 2016.