Inside Retail presents the Australian Retail Index.

The index gives a quick overview of retail statistics in four key categories; fashion and accessories, furniture and homewares, sporting and recreational, and other.

Key retail statistics are shown weekly, with yearly comparisons available.

Furniture sales was the shining light in what was an otherwise negative result for retail last week. The furniture and homewares sector posted an increase in sales performance of 8.05 per cent, which eclipses the performance in the same week in 2014 of just 5.29 per cent. Western Australia and South Australia were the star performers, each posting a positive gain of over 20 per cent for the week.

Interestingly, Victoria was the only state to show a positive gain (3.63 per cent) in overall retail sales, with all other states recording negative results. Most of these gains were seen in the last week of the month.

Want more Inside Retail? Subscribe to Inside Retail Weekly now and get our premium print publication delivered to your door every week.