Retail Trade - Sales per head of population 1995 Q3–2025 Q1

Per head of population: the population measure used for the Retail Trade Survey is the estimated residential population. It excludes short-term visitors to New Zealand.

Sales: The value of sales of goods and services for the quarter. Sales are published as GST exclusive.
Sales value: Actual values are in current prices and not adjusted for inflation or price effects.
Sales volume: Volumes have had price changes removed and are expressed in September 2010 quarter prices. Volumes make it easier to compare sales now and a decade ago, because it takes into account the effects of inflation.
Stocks: Trading stocks, finished goods and work in progress, materials, fuels etc. on hand at the end of the quarter. Stocks are published as GST exclusive.

Stats NZ received updated retail trade sales deflators, by industry, for the September and December 2020 quarters.

The updates affected the following series:
- pharmaceutical and other store-based retailing – September 2020 quarter
- fuel retailing – September and December 2020 quarters.
As a result, Stats NZ have updated the actual retail sales volumes for these industries in the corresponding September and December 2020 quarters.

http://datainfoplus.stats.govt.nz/item/nz.govt.stats/3870801a-971c-49c8-a021-6e3962dce661/14

In late January and mid-February 2023, Aotearoa New Zealand was affected by tropical cyclones Hale and Gabrielle. Some activity of businesses in affected regions was impacted by the cyclones. Stats NZ is unable to identify the unique impact from the cyclones on retail sales relative to other factors like consumer behaviour changes due to inflation or COVID-19 related influences like international borders being open.
It is not possible to estimate current trend levels to Stats NZ’s usual quality standard until Stats NZ know the full effect of COVID-19 on the time series. Once the series stabilises, Stats NZ will estimate the COVID-19 effects. The timeframe for this will vary for different series, depending on how they have been affected by COVID-19.

The target population is all kind-of-activity units (KAUs) operating in New Zealand classified on Stats NZ’s Business Register (BR) to Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification 2006 (ANZSIC06) Division G – Retail Trade, and ANZSIC06 Division H – Accommodation and Food Services.

From September 2017 quarter, Stats NZ started collecting retail trade data under the new design. They are now using administrative data (goods and services tax (GST)) wherever possible, and supplementing this by surveying only the larger retail businesses.
For more details on these changes, please refer to http://archive.stats.govt.nz/browse_for_stats/industry_sectors/RetailTrade/Methodology-changes-retail-trade.aspx

At URL provided, download 'Retail trade survey: March 2025 quarter – CSV' zipped file.

The Retail Trade Survey (RTS) provides short-term economic indicators of the retail trade sector. In addition, Stats NZ use the data for compiling the retail trade sector component of quarterly national accounts (on the production side) and in compiling household consumption expenditure (on the expenditure side).