Roy Morgan Update September 9, 2025: Consumer Confidence up but Business Confidence down, and Australian-made Buying Preferences

In this week's Market Research Update, we present the latest data on Consumer Confidence, Business Confidence and Australian-made Buying Preferences.

Welcome to the Roy Morgan Weekly update.

The weekly indicators are positive, Consumer Confidence is up 1.3 points to 89.3.

And ANZ-Roy Morgan Inflation Expectations is down 0.2% to 4.7%.

First today, a look at new Roy Morgan research which shows Australians remain committed to buying Australian-made products, with support sitting at a consistent 95%.

In contrast, attitudes toward products from the United States and China have shifted dramatically since 2020.

Already this year, Australians’ likelihood of buying US made products, the blue, has plunged 14% points to 40%, coinciding with Donald Trump’s return to the White House in January 2025.

Under the Biden Administration, positive sentiment towards US made products climbed to a high of 60% in mid-2023 but has since declined.

In contrast, Australians’ willingness to buy Chinese-made products has steadily increased over the last few years and now reached 34%, almost double the level recorded at the start of the pandemic (18%).

For further information on Australian attitudes to buying products from the US, China and other countries head to the Roy Morgan website.

Coinciding with the rise in the willingness of Australians to buy Chinese-made goods the latest Roy Morgan retail data shows two Chinese online retailers – Shein and Temu – leading the pack in terms of year-on-year growth, along with US giant Amazon.

The fastest growth is for Shein, up 27% (or 600,000 shoppers) to 2.6 million.

Temu is up 24% (or 900,000 shoppers) to 4.7 million, and

Amazon is up 11% (or 900,000 shoppers) to 8.8 million.

The rapid rise of these 3 online disruptors is reshaping Australia’s retail landscape.

Roy Morgan estimates Temu and Shein together added almost $1.3 billion in annual sales year on year - $1 billion additional sales for Temu and $300 million additional sales for Shein

Temu has close to an estimated $2.6 billion in annual sales in the 12 months to June 2025 (compared to an estimated $1.6 billion a year ago) and Shein has close to an estimated $1.3 billion in annual sales (compared to an estimated $1 billion a year ago).

For further information on the growth and profile of these retailers, head over to the Roy Morgan website.

And finally today to how businesses are feeling. Australian Business Confidence for the month of August dropped 4.4 points to 98.6 – just below the neutral level of 100.

The decrease to Business Confidence came despite the Reserve Bank’s decision to cut interest rates to 3.6% in August.

This Roy Morgan Business Confidence series is based on interviews with 1,200 businesses each month to gauge their views on their company’s prospects as well as their assessment of the broader Australian economy.

Driving Business Confidence lower in August was a decline in confidence about the next year – both in terms of the businesses own performance and the prospects for the wider Australian economy.