What are the development trends of Australian e-commerce market?

Australia’s e-commerce market is booming, with australians spending a $28.6 billion ($20.3 billion) online last year.

As of January 2019, online shopping consumption accounted for 9% of total retail sales in Australia.

Statista (German Data Statistics resource website) predicts revenue for Australian online companies will grow by 15.1% by the end of the year.

In addition, the number of online shoppers in Australia in 2019 will increase by 5% over last year to 20.3 million.

It is estimated that Australia’s e-commerce market will grow by more than 37% over the next three years, reaching nearly $40 billion by 2022. And with that growth, consumer spending habits and shopping trends are constantly changing.

According to the latest data from the Neto2018 Australian e-Commerce market report, published by Australian Retail Management platform Neto, sales performance in all vertical areas of Australia was impressive in fiscal 2018, Neto’s total sales for all categories of sellers increased by an average of 30% year-on-year.




The fashion industry is a leader in all categories, with sales topping the list of 57% year-on-year increases. Household items (55%) were the second fastest increase in total sales, followed by niche category Auto Parts (49%).

By February 2019, 80.8% of australians will be shopping online, and by 2020 one in 10 goods will be purchased online. By 2021, the penetration rate of the Australian e-commerce market will reach 85.2% and the number of online shoppers will reach 22 million.

Australians also had an increase in spending on every online purchase deal, with their average trading amount in all vertical areas increasing by 5% to $130 trillion. Specifically, food and alcohol were the most consumed category by shoppers, spending an average of $168 per transaction. The second is the hardware tools category, where retailers average the amount of $162 per transaction.

25% of online sales in Australia come from mobile devices




According to the PayPal mobile commerce index released by PayPal, one quarter of Australian consumers use shopping on their mobile phones. While 63% of australians still prefer desktop or laptop shopping, the mobile shopping is also gaining popularity. 48% of australians use their mobile phones at least once a week.

In addition, Criteo, an effect marketing technology company, has seen a trend in mobile shopping, with up to 85% of Australians shopping at least once a month through the retail APP.

Social media is becoming an important e-commerce Portal in Australia




Australian consumers’ acceptance of social e-commerce continued to grow in 2018. According to the report of PayPal 2018 mCommerce Index released by PayPal,the report shows that 19% of Australian consumers have been shopping through social media platforms in the past six months, compared with just 11% in 2017. Among those shopping through social media platforms, Facebook remains their preferred destination (81%), followed by Instagram (25%) and Snapchat (9%).

In its report, PayPal said that despite an increase in the number of Australians shopping through social media platforms, many Australians are still unsure whether they will buy goods on social medium platforms. 36% of Australian consumers do not believe in the shopping process through the social media platform, and 38% of Australian consumers are concerned about the security of their financial information.

In addition to direct purchases, social media platforms are becoming important product discovery tools for Australian consumers. 22% of Australians said they would buy an item on a social media platform after buying it through an online store, which jumped to 31% among Australians aged 18 to 34.

PayPal still dominates payments, but credit payments are growing at double-digit rates



The new payment method, Buy Now Pay Later, has done particularly well, with the value of transactions through Afterpay, ZipPay and ZipMoney growing by 122%. The share of spending using the payment method doubled to 7 percent from 2017, and the trend and growth trajectory is expected to continue over the next year.

54% of the deals this year were made via PayPal, down from 73% in 2017. However, PayPal’s total trading volume did increase by 19%.

Credit card transactions (including debit cards), which take a piece of PayPal’s cake, account for 39% of online transactions, up 17% from last year, underscoring growing confidence in using credit cards for online payments. Total Australian credit card consumption is known to have increased 31% per cent year-on.

Although this is the current trend, using electronic wallets such as PayPal, Alipay and Amazon Pay will be the future payment trend. By 2023, about 37 percent of online payments will be through e-wallets.

What are the hottest shopping trends in the world right now?



Uber, Amazon, Instagram, AirBnB, ZipCar and the concept of “online shopping + offline delivery” have all revolutionized shopping. While the “online shopping + offline Pick-up” approach is not yet mature in Australia, it has been able to effectively help drive physical store sales in markets such as Europe, China and the United States.

According to the Inside Australian Online Shopping Report, Australian consumers spent 28.7% more on black Friday and cyber Monday, the two major Shopping events, which means shoppers completed their Christmas Shopping lists earlier than ever before.

The survey data also pointed out that the enthusiasm of Australian consumers for online bargains has also boosted sales of other e-commerce promotions in Australia, with Australian consumers spending about 24% per cent more on other shopping festivals in 2018.

Why should brands participate in online shopping promotion activities?




Large-scale promotions are increasingly being accepted and loved by Australian consumers. For example, according to Criteo, a new performance-marketing technology firm, Click musicals is a big online sales campaign in Australia, in which sellers sell 45% of all online sales, from 8%, to boost overall revenues.

By analyzing 56 million online shopping transaction traffic and sales data from 151 Australian retailers, Criteo found that conversion rates increased by 10% to 15% during the promotion campaign.

In terms of different categories, fashion sales rose by more than 73% in 2018, health and beauty sales rose 62% (even 105% the day before the event), while home classes Rose 21%. Although the scale of online shopping promotion in Australia is not large at present, it is bound to be a trend in the future.