Online sales in Australia increased significantly during the pandemic last year and this is likely to continue, with e-commerce sales to reach $77.1 billion in 2024.
According to GlobalData’s Ecommerce Analytics, sales will grow at an annual rate of 10.3 per cent between 2020 and 2024.
“Covid-19 has changed consumer buying behaviour as they are increasingly switching from offline to online channels,” says Shivani Gupta, banking and payments senior analyst at GlobalData.
“With social distancing rules and closure of many brick and mortar stores, shoppers had to embrace online channels for day-to-day shopping.”
Indeed, ABS figures show that online sales in Australia registered a 55 per cent rise in December 2020 compared to same period last year. Australia Post’s Online Shopping Report published in January 2021 reveals that over 5.6 million Australian households shopped online in December 2020, a 21.3 per cent growth compared to 2019 average.
As Australian consumers continue to embrace online shopping, the use of electronic payments will increase as consumers move away from cash. Payment solutions such as PayPal, POLi, Apple Pay and Google Pay are benefitting from this trend. Buy now, pay later solutions are also becoming popular in Australia, particularly among millennials, who use this as a budgeting tool to spread payments.
“Covid-19 crisis opened e-commerce market to a whole new set of consumers, who were not using online channels. A significant rise in consumer preference for online channels during the pandemic coupled with proliferation of online retailers and customised payment solutions will further drive e-commerce growth in Australia,” adds Gupta.
