The latest Australia Post eCommerce report showed that Aussie shoppers spent $62.3 billion on online physical goods in 2021, representing a 19.3 per cent share of total retail sales.
Growth in spending on online physical goods was strong, at 23.4 per cent year-on-year in large part due to the new habits formed since the onset of the pandemic.
The report suggested that ongoing restrictions further strengthened this growth and encouraged shoppers to continue to buy online more frequently.
Even with restrictions now lifting across the board, the report said it expects online shopping to continue to grow much faster than physical retail with more people buying online more often.
Purchase frequency grew 12.3 per cent year-on-year and 73.1 per cent more purchases were made online in 2021 compared to 2019, demonstrating the strong change in shopper behaviour over the past two years.
Metro areas have experienced more restrictions due to the pandemic, and as a result have seen slightly higher growth than regional. Households in inner regional areas contributed the most online purchase growth across regional locations.
The report noted that shoppers’ habits are evolving and the rolling restrictions in 2021 helped cement online shopping as a permanent fixture within the Australian retail landscape.
More households shopped online, and more often, via more channels than ever before with 5.4 million households purchasing online monthly in 2021 and increase of 7.3 per cent year-on-year.
