The retail trade survey measures the sales and stock of businesses that provide household and personal goods and services - for example car yards, petrol stations, supermarkets, cafes and restaurants, and hotels.
Key facts
For the September 2025 quarter compared with the June 2025 quarter, unless otherwise stated:
- total volume of seasonally adjusted retail sales was $26 billion, up 1.9 percent
- total value of seasonally adjusted retail sales was $31 billion, up 1.7 percent ($521 million)
- 14 of the 16 regions had higher seasonally adjusted sales values
- total value of actual retail sales was $30 billion, up 5.0 percent ($1.4 billion), compared with the September 2024 quarter
- total value of actual stock as at 30 September 2025 was $9.2 billion, down 0.3 percent ($26 million) compared with 30 September 2024.
Actual values are in current prices and not adjusted for inflation or price effects. Seasonally adjusted values have had typical seasonal patterns removed. Volumes have had price changes removed and are expressed in September 2010 quarter prices.
| "Quarter" | "Actual " | "Seasonally adjusted" | "Trend" |
| "Sep-2020" | "25092233000" | "26118627000" | "25322001000" |
| "Dec-2020" | "27977684000" | "25660923000" | "25688069000" |
| "Mar-2021" | "25426654000" | "26128085000" | "26278243000" |
| "Jun-2021" | "26511665000" | "27197445000" | "26560826000" |
| "Sep-2021" | "23802707000" | "24720305000" | "26741799000" |
| "Dec-2021" | "29199341000" | "26824372000" | "26773321000" |
| "Mar-2022" | "26007411000" | "26692313000" | "26940322000" |
| "Jun-2022" | "25535164000" | "26226220000" | "26665247000" |
| "Sep-2022" | "24969369000" | "25947495000" | "25812629000" |
| "Dec-2022" | "28026047000" | "25706760000" | "25650648000" |
| "Mar-2023" | "24939197000" | "25435177000" | "25454073000" |
| "Jun-2023" | "24630447000" | "25395337000" | "25351374000" |
| "Sep-2023" | "24113270000" | "25141981000" | "25097494000" |
| "Dec-2023" | "26874739000" | "24667425000" | "24815625000" |
| "Mar-2024" | "24335951000" | "24768391000" | "24665986000" |
| "Jun-2024" | "23742966000" | "24520407000" | "24572285000" |
| "Sep-2024" | "23511904000" | "24479022000" | "24551240000" |
| "Dec-2024" | "26949020000" | "24745800000" | "24731067000" |
| "Mar-2025" | "24499522000" | "24927734000" | "24909520000" |
| "Jun-2025" | "24300837000" | "25097949000" | "25168913000" |
| "Sep-2025" | "24577233000" | "25569585000" | "25511876000" |
Sales volumes up in September
Eight of the 15 industries had higher seasonally adjusted sales volumes in the September 2025 quarter compared with the June 2025 quarter.
By industry, the largest movements were:
- motor vehicle and parts retailing - up 7.2 percent
- electrical and electronic goods retailing - up 9.8 percent
- supermarket and grocery stores - down 1.4 percent
- food and beverage services - up 1.6 percent
- hardware, building, and garden supplies - up 1.7 percent.
| "Industry" | "Volume" | "Value" |
| "Motor vehicle and parts retailing" | "260132000" | "283581000" |
| "Electrical and electronic goods retailing" | "228665000" | " 69973000" |
| "Food and beverage services" | " 41703000" | " 89550000" |
| "Hardware | " 33781000" | " 57090000" |
| building | " 28474000" | " 40662000" |
| and garden supplies" | " 26210000" | " 54384000" |
| "Department stores" | " 9381000" | " 1373000" |
| "Pharmaceutical and other store-based retailing" | " 2899000" | " 4661000" |
| "Furniture | " -2636000" | " 8320000" |
| floor coverings | " -6527000" | " -6246000" |
| houseware | "-12429000" | "-14362000" |
| and textile goods" | "-12877000" | "-15843000" |
| "Recreational goods retailing" | "-26427000" | "-19331000" |
| "Specialised food retailing" | "-29561000" | "-30619000" |
| "Liquor retailing" | "-69152000" | " -2246000" |
| "Non-store and commission-based retailing" | ||
| "Accommodation" | ||
| "Clothing | ||
| footwear | ||
| and personal accessories" | ||
| "Fuel retailing" | ||
| "Supermarket and grocery stores" |
Sales values up in September
Nine of the 15 industries had higher seasonally adjusted sales values in the September 2025 quarter compared with the June 2025 quarter.
With price effects included, the largest industry movements were:
- motor vehicle and parts retailing - up 7.0 percent ($284 million)
- food and beverage services - up 2.2 percent ($90 million)
- electrical and electronic goods retailing - up 7.5 percent ($70 million)
- hardware, building, and garden supplies - up 2.2 percent ($57 million)
- pharmaceutical and other store-based retailing - up 2.5 percent ($54 million).
Regional sales values
Fourteen of the 16 regions had higher seasonally adjusted sales values in the September 2025 quarter compared with the June 2025 quarter.
By region, the largest movements were:
- Auckland - up 1.3 percent ($147 million)
- Canterbury - up 2.0 percent ($81 million)
- Wellington - up 2.3 percent ($63 million)
- Waikato - up 1.9 percent ($53 million)
- Northland - up 2.1 percent ($20 million).
More regional figures are in tables 7, 8, and 9 of the Excel workbook 'Retail trade survey: September 2025 quarter', under Download data.
Stock values down
Stock figures were recorded as at 30 September 2025. All references to stocks are in actual dollars.
The total value of stock held at 30 September 2025 was $9.2 billion, down 0.3 percent ($26 million) compared with 30 September 2024.
By industry, the largest movements were:
- motor vehicle and parts retailing - up 2.9 percent ($57 million)
- department stores - down 3.0 percent ($39 million).
Data updates
We have made improvements to our methodology, affecting results for the September 2022 to June 2025 quarters. We have revised the data in the published series and affected series are marked with a revision flag in the published tables, CSV files, and relevant Infoshare series.
Infoshare changes by date has more information on the data updates and the series affected.
Updated retail trade survey deflators
We did our annual update to the retail trade sales deflator weights this quarter. Each good or service in the retail trade deflators is weighted to reflect the relative mix of goods and services sold in the 15 retail industries. The deflators are used to remove the effect of price change, which allows change in the volume of retail sales to be estimated.
The deflator for each industry consists of a 'basket' of indexes, drawn mainly from the consumers price index (CPI).
Updated weights information is available in 'Retail trade survey deflator weights, by industry, at June 2025 quarter' under Download data.
Retail trade survey deflator weights has all the deflator weights from June 2010 to June 2025.
Table 12 of 'Retail trade survey: September 2025 quarter' under Download data has the sales deflators, rather than the weights.
More data
Use Infoshare for retail trade tables:
Subject category: Industry sectors
Group: Retail trade (ANZSIC06) - RTT
Definitions and metadata
Retail trade survey - DataInfo+ provides general methodology used to produce retail trade survey statistics.
Retail trade survey concepts - DataInfo+ gives the definitions of terms used in this release.
Technical enquiries
Tain Cording
[email protected]
04 931 4600
ISSN 1178-0355
Next release
Retail trade survey: December 2025 quarter will be released on 23 February 2026.
