The latest statistics from Australia Post and NAB should be encouraging for online retailers. What’s clear from recent research is that retailers need to have a consistent offering and integrated strategy across online, in-store and marketplaces in order to compete and scale.
The NAB Online Retail Sales Index (NORSI) showed that year-on-year growth was up 17.9 percent. Comparatively, ABS data on traditional retailers showed that month-on-month, seasonally adjusted sales were flat (0 percent) in March 2018, substantially outpaced by NORSI.
The NAB estimates that Australian online consumers have spent around $25.8 billion over the 12 months to April 2018. This is equivalent to 8.2 percent of spending at traditional brick and mortar retailers. The fastest 12-months-to-growth was recorded by the department sales category (25.5 percent April versus 22 percent 12 months to March).
Similarly, Australia Post found that marketplaces and discount department stores were the favourite destination sites for online shoppers with purchases via these channels growing over 50 percent in 2017. It predicts that by 2020, one in 10 items will be bought online.
There are four key consumer trends that are clear from the research:
- Buy Now, Pay Later services are gaining momentum;
- Marketplaces are booming (growing by 74.8 percent in 2017 alone)
- Consumers are increasingly more comfortable shopping by mobile, with mobile purchases growing 58 percent in 2017 and desktop / laptop purchases falling by 11 percent. One in five online purchases are now made from a mobile device
- Sales events such as Black Friday, Cyber Monday (experiencing 27 percent growth in 2017), Boxing Day Sales (experiencing 35 percent growth in 2017) and Click Frenzy (experiencing 14 percent growth year on year) are making their mark.
Want to understand more about where e-commerce is heading and to ensure your online strategy is keeping pace? Get in touch today.
