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Online shopping in Australia

PicodiMarch 18, 2019

Interesting facts about the shopping habits of Australian internet users

Although there is no denying that online shopping has brought much convenience to people’s lives, the issue poses a great challenge for retailers as there is a number of points to consider. What kind of devices do Australians use to shop online? How much money do they spend? How does the shopping activity change across the year? Is online shopping more popular among men or women? To look for answers, Picodi.com analysed last year’s data and presented the results in this report.

Smartphones far behind

Although mobile commerce is booming globally, it turns out Australians still prefer desktops over smartphones. According to our internal data, only 1 out of 4 transactions was made with the use of a mobile device last year.

What is more, Australians tend to spend less when using smartphones. When they did shopping with the use of a phone, the average order value was only A$93. It’s about A$103 less than when using desktops (A$196). iOS users spend more than Android users — A$146 vs A$88 on average.

The important question is who shops online more — men or women? Our data shows that there were more purchases made by Australian women than those made by men. The difference is not that significant though; 53% and 47% respectively.

Unsurprisingly, it’s the young generation that prefers online shopping. Almost half of all online shoppers (45%) are people between the ages of 25 and 34. They’re followed by people aged 35-44 (24%) and 18-24% (15%). The remaining 16% are consumers who are over 45 years old.

Shopping habits of Australian internet users

Busy end of the year

According to our research, the average order value of anAustralian shopper is the highest in January(A$247), followed by June and July (A$212 and A$197 accordingly).

Compared to that, the average order value of a moderate A$75 in November might come as a surprise. After all, that’s when Black Friday and Click Frenzy take place. The answer is rather easy. Even though their baskets are smaller during that time, Australians shop in a number of different online stores and place more orders. So if you look at the shopping activity, it turns out November has the highest number of transactions — more than one-fourth of all the transactions made during the year.

The second busiest month when it comes to the number of transactions was October (22%), followed by December (17%). Last-minute Christmas shoppers might have greatly contributed to such a high number in the latter month. The lowest number of transactions was noted in March with the average order value amounting to A$107.

Consumers in Australia shop more on Sunday and Monday and less towards the end of the week. It is especially visible among desktop users’ shopping activity which decreases on Fridays and Saturdays. Australians definitely prefer to shop in the evenings: the peak of sales (mobile) occurs at 7 PM. The most popular time of the day to shop online using computers is the afternoon — 45% of all purchases.

The most popular categories for online shopping among Australians were: food on delivery, clothing, electronics, books and sports.

Online shoppers around the world

How people around the world shop online?

We analysed data from 35 countries and compared the devices people use to shop online and the average order value. Australia, with only 22% of their orders made on mobile devices, is among the countries where desktop shopping takes the lead.

Peru tops the ranking with 76% of online purchases made with the use of smartphones. Close behind are Nigeria and Thailand (62% and 56%). Only Brazil falls behind Australia with 20%.

However, when it comes to the average order value, Australians with their US$121 (A$170) rank higher than the world’s average, which is US$79. Emiratis spent the most money per order — astonishing US$218. And it looks like Hungarians and Turks don’t like to spend a lot in one go. They are at the bottom of the ranking with US$32 and US$38 respectively.

Online shopping in numbers:

  • 1 out of 4 transactions was made on a mobile device last year,
  • there were more purchases made by women than by men (53% vs 47%),
  • almost half of all online shoppers (45%) are people between the ages of 25 and 34,
  • the average order value in Australia is the highest in January (A$248),
  • the highest number of transactions was noted in November — 26.5% of all annual transactions,
  • food, electronics and clothing are the top 3 categories for online shopping

The Good Guys, eBay, Wish, Anaconda and ASOS are the most popular marketplaces in Australia, however, not many users know that shopping in those places can be made even better with cashback. All you have to do is activate it in Picodi before each purchase.

Methodology

This report uses the internal data of a global e-commerce platform Picodi.com for 2018. For currency conversion, we used the average exchange rate for March 2019.

Public Use

Are you willing to share the information and infographics about shopping online in Australia with your readers? Feel free to use all the data and infographics presented in this report for both commercial and non-commercial purposes as long as you indicate the author of the research (Picodi.com) with a link to this subpage.