Taxable retail sales increased 6.6 percent to $124.85 billion during calendar year 2014 compared to 2013, the Washington State Department of Revenue reported on May 26.

Retail trade, a subset of all sales that excludes nonretail sectors such as construction and services, rose 4.8 percent to $56.31 billion.

Within the retail sector:

· New and used car sales rose 7.9 percent to $10.76 billion.

· Building materials, garden equipment and supplies increased 7.5 percent to $5.35 billion

· E-commerce and mail order went up 19.8 percent to $2.09 billion

· Drug and health stores rose by 8.3 percent to $1.81 billion

The construction industry saw large gains, with an overall increase of 9.6 percent to $21.14 billion. Building construction drove most of those gains, rising 9.7 percent to $11.57 billion.

While many industries saw gains in 2014, some showed slight declines. Department stores dropped 2.2 percent to $2.96 billion, and book stores and news dealers also dropped by 1.5 percent to $295 million.