Analysis: Retail spend defies national slowdown
ANALYSIS: Western Australia’s retail sector closed 2025 with strong momentum, underscoring the state’s ongoing consumer resilience.
Western Australia’s retail sector closed 2025 with strong momentum, underscoring the state’s ongoing consumer resilience.
Despite cost-of-living pressures and uncertainty about interest rates, WA households continued to spend, providing a boost to consumer confidence and the broader economy.
The latest data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics and Bankwest Spend Trends suggest the state’s retail spending has substantially outperformed that of other jurisdictions in the run up to Christmas.
ABS data for November 2025 showed household spending in WA rose by 1.7 per cent compared with the previous month, well above most other states and territories.
NSW and South Australia both recorded an increase of 0.8 per cent over the same period, while Queensland and Victoria increased 1 per cent. Only Tasmania (2.1 per cent) topped WA.
According to ABS data, WA’s retail spending growth was driven mostly by discretionary categories such as recreation, clothing, and household goods, all signs of relative consumer confidence.
This data reinforces the state’s reputation for maintaining a consistently strong consumer market.
Retailers across the country rely heavily on spending over the festive season, with many depending on a lift in retail turnover to survive the challenging economic conditions.
With this in mind, the most recent release of Bankwest’s Spend Trends data series provides further insights into retail spending across the trading period through to the end of 2025.
Spending in December 2025 was up 7.6 per cent compared to the same month in 2024, mostly in department stores, toy shops and sporting outlets.
A striking feature of Bankwest’s data for December is the growing dominance of Black Friday over Christmas as the centrepiece of the retail calendar for WA families.
According to their data, spending during the Black Friday sales week – from November 28 to December 4 – was 28 per cent higher than sales over the traditional Boxing Day sales week.
Black Friday spending was up 6 per cent in 2025 compared with the same period in 2024, with discount stores, sporting goods outlets, toy retailers and department stores leading the way in sales volumes.
This provides further evidence that the Black Friday sales are rewriting the rules when it comes to consumer spending behaviour, with more families taking advantage of deep discounts before Christmas, rather than waiting for the Boxing Day sales.
Retail data also highlights a pretty clear generational divide.
Gen Z customers (aged under 30) recorded the strongest growth in spending volumes and average transaction values, indicating a shifting focus on quality.
Millennials and gen X households also recorded solid increases in volume and average values, reflecting their central role in household and festive spending.
Baby boomers, meanwhile, showed little change in transaction numbers but recorded higher average values, suggesting a shift toward more selective, higher-value purchases.
For WA businesses and retailers, the message is clear: consumer spending remains robust, but is increasingly strategic, promotion- driven and selective.
From a policy perspective, the data offers cautious optimism that WA’s household consumption is well positioned to continue supporting economic activity as we move into 2026, even as we face uncertainty around interest rates and inflation.
• Dr Abebe Hailemariam is a senior research fellow at the Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre
