HIGHLIGHTS

· Total online retail spending was up 14% compared to October last year, continuing the strong trend of recent months.
· Online retail sales at local sites were up 11% on last October.
· Online retail sales at offshore sites were very strong - up 17% on last October.

October 1 was the first day of the 'Netflix tax', which added GST to digital online services from international providers. However, our reported figures exclude GST, which means they exclude the estimated impact on prices from the 'Netflix tax'. Only a few weeks out from its implementation, it's too early to clearly identify any effects on underlying purchase behaviour. Prima-facie, there appears to be no obvious volume impact so far, for the digital goods which fall into the retail categories we track. (N.B. TV subscriptions are not included as "Retail" under the ANZSIC system, and are not in our series).

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