Strong Growth in Australian Retail Sales for January
Despite Weak Sales Conversion
Monthly KRI Summary
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Discover key insights in the latest Australian Kepler Retail Market Index for January 2025.
Comparison Period: The following insights are based on comparing the 4-week retail month of January this year (30th Dec 2024 to 26th Jan 2025) to the same period last year (1st Jan 2025 to 28th Jan 2025).
Foot Traffic Trends:
- A great start to the year for foot traffic with Passer-by-traffic up 2.4% YoY and Inside traffic up 4.4% YoY across January.
- Queensland had the strongest growth, with Inside traffic up 7.6% YoY in January.
- This follows strong growth in December, where Passer-by traffic was up 5.2% and Inside traffic was up 6.6%, reversing the declining trend seen between September and November.
Sales Conversion Performance:
- However, sales conversion has continued to be weak, down 5.1% YoY in January, following yeary-on-year declines in November (-2.6%) and December (-0.7%).
- The last three weeks have seen the biggest declines in sales conversion across FY25 to date.
- The strong foot traffic but weak sales conversion shows that shoppers are still visiting stores but are being much more cautious in their post-Christmas spending compared with last year.
- This highlights the need for retailers to continue to focus on actions that maximise the value of each shopper in-store.
- Outlets were the only retail precinct type to maintain similar sales conversion rates to last year across January.
Transactions:
- Transaction volumes in January were down 0.9% YoY, as weak sales conversion rates more than offset the gains from higher foot traffic.
Average Transaction Values (ATVs):
- ATVs were up 4.2% YoY, and the average price per item was up 3.9% YoY.
Sales Performance:
- Despite weak sales conversion, strong foot traffic and higher ATVs led to an impressive 3.2% YoY growth in sales.
- Sales have been in growth in six out of the seven months this financial year, with sales now flat year-on year across the last 12 months.
- Sales growth in January has been above average for Activewear retailers and high ATV retailers ($150+), despite ongoing cost-of-living pressures.
About Kepler’s Retail Market Index
- Kepler’s Retail Market Index provides the most insightful and most timely view of retail industry performance across both Australia and New Zealand
- The index is based on anonymised data from Kepler’s Retail Foot Traffic Solution customers, primarily non-food specialty retailers
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Black Friday and Christmas Trade Results
We are excited to present our latest Australian Retail Market Update, offering key insights into retail performance throughout 2024, including the pivotal Black Friday and Christmas trading period. Additionally, this update provides ideas to foster sales growth in 2025.
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