Australians are starting to spend a little more as household budgets recover and interest rates and inflation ease, the country’s biggest companies have said.
ASX-listed businesses have reported their earnings through August, showing rising customer spending on overseas flights, pints at the pub, and running shoes.
Those aged 20 to 34 spent more on non-essential goods in the three months to June than they had a year before when they were cutting back, Commonwealth Bank reported. Meanwhile, growth in non-essential spending doubled among 35 to 54-year-olds.
Shopping remains weak across the board, but CEOs mentioned “green shoots” in a few key areas. Here’s where Australians have upped their spending as incomes recovered.
International travel
International flights boomed in the year to June, as customers turned from local holidays to overseas adventures.
Qantas Group carried 1.8 million more passengers in the first half of 2025 than it did in the first half of 2024. The single biggest contributor to that was a 730,000-trip jump in Jetstar international flights.
Jetstar’s domestic flights saw the biggest increase in trips than any other Qantas Group branch the previous year, when Australians’ appetite for overseas travel was under pressure from surging air fares as pandemic restrictions lifted and the rising cost-of-living.
The budget carrier’s popularity shows money remains front of mind, with Qantas forecasting 12% growth for Jetstar international and 8% for Qantas international.
Flight Centre reported surging travel in June and July to countries in Australia’s region, including China, Japan, New Zealand and Vietnam, rather than long-haul destinations, which the company attributed to budget consciousness along with efforts to avoid the Middle East and the US.
Webjet reported lower domestic holiday bookings and rising international bookings. Australian Bureau of Statistics data showed locals took a million more short-term trips overseas in the year to June than they did the year before.
Pub nights
Growing crowds have bought pints and pub feeds during sports seasons, even as general alcohol spending slows, the country’s largest hotel owner reported.
Endeavour Group’s 350 venues saw sales growth double in the year to June, running higher than 4% after picking up less than 2% in the previous 12 months, with chief executive Kate Beattie calling it a “buoyant market”.
“We do see pubs really enjoying a renaissance as a destination for socialising,” she said.
Beattie said spending momentum surged in the first half of 2025 and carried through to August with a boost from the British and Irish Lions rugby union tour, which Commonwealth Bank and NAB also noted.
“We saw particularly Guinness sell well during that event period, which probably reflects the demographic that was actively enjoying the festivities,” Beattie said.
Bega, which sells cheese and other dairy products to pubs and clubs, reported an increase in pub meal purchases.
Runners
Sports footwear sales boomed as run clubs exploded in popularity and marathons sprang up around the country, with leading chains Rebel and The Athlete’s Foot recording strong sales.
Rebel reported especially strong sports footwear sales, helping its overall sales pick up by nearly 5% or about $60m.
The Skechers, Hoka and Merrell sports shoe brands reported strong sales through the year, with parent company Accent Group’s chief executive, Daniel Agostinelli, pointing to sport fashion’s rising popularity.
“A lot of it is sport-inspired and that’s sort of what the market’s wanting at the moment, and that’s starting to bleed into the lifestyle space,” Agostinelli said.
Lifestyle and fashion sneakers have been slower to regain customers, with Accent writing down the value of skate shoe brand Vans by nearly $4m and struggling to boost growth at sneaker chain Platypus.
Nintendo Switch 2
The Nintendo Switch 2 launch in June provided such a significant boost to sales at electronics retailer JB Hi-Fi that investors worried it wouldn’t be able to keep the momentum going.
JB’s overall Australian sales rose nearly $500m annually in 2024-25, with games hardware a key contributor. Its profit margin was shaved down to 22% as consumers swapped to cheaper staple electronics while competition and promotional discounts ramped up.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics earlier in August said the device’s “much-anticipated launch [and] record sales” contributed to an overall $550m lift in national monthly retail trade, the biggest jump since lockdowns lifted in late 2021.
Gamers aren’t splashing out on their screens to match, though, with shoppers swapping high-quality TVs for cheaper alternatives, according to JB Hi-Fi’s chief operating officer, Nick Wells.
“Pretty consistent with what we’ve seen, TVs in [2025] have been a bit more challenging, particularly average selling prices [with] people trading down,” he said.
Black market goods
Incomes may be rising but customers are still looking for a discount if they can find one, and online resale markets have fuelled a boom in shoplifting according to major retailers.
Power tools at Bunnings, tech products at Officeworks and higher-priced Kmart products are being targeted for theft and resale, according to Rob Scott, chief executive of parent company Wesfarmers.
Organised crime, rather than opportunistic petty theft, was responsible for the surge, Anthony Heraghty, chief executive of Rebel’s parent company, Super Retail group.
“It is not the kid shoving a T-shirt in the bag, it’s someone grabbing a rack of tennis rackets and then selling them on a marketplace,” he said.
“[They’re] coming in and taking thousands of dollars in one move and usually assaulting the team members on the way out.”
The stock loss dragged profits down from the year before, even though Rebel cut costs and sold more goods.
Streetwear retailer Universal Store told investors it had to set up a dedicated anti-theft manager for loss prevention for the first time.
The black market for tobacco has also continued its steady rise, with most recent data indicating national nicotine consumption is steady even though legal sales are slumping.
Tobacco sales fell by nearly a third in the year to June at Ampol petrol stations, contributing to a $30m slide in the company’s convenience store revenue for the first half of 2025, according to Kate Thomson, executive general manager of retail.
“We have seen … tobacco get worse [so] certainly it’s not improving, as some may have hoped,” Thomson said
Those who are still buying legal smokes prefer classier, higher-margin tobacco products, though, boosting Ampol stores’ pre-tax profit margin to 40%, from 37% in 2024 and less than 30% in 2020.