November was the biggest month in Australian online shopping history, exceeding last year’s record month, with nearly one in every four purchases coming from Fashion & Apparel retailers, Australia Post reported.
Online buying in November exceeded last year’s record by more than 13 per cent, highlighting the COVID-19-generated surge in online shopping, which was up 76 per cent year on year.
During the extended sales season, Australia Post delivered over 2.3 million parcels per day, as well as over 21 million items across the longer sales event period.
Australia Post General Manager, Parcel & Express Services, Ben Franzi said extended pre-Black Friday sales had completely transformed this year’s event, and Australians once again had taken advantage of the sales.
“With many cyber sales starting sooner than last year people have been able to snap up online deals for longer than just those traditional four big days from Black Friday,” Mr Franzi said.
Almost one in four purchases was from a Fashion & Apparel speciality retailer, while Pet Products and Tools & Garden (both up more than 21 per cent YOY), Footwear (up 17.8 per cent YOY), and Fashion Accessories (up 12.4 per cent YOY) were all in hot demand.
Bargains were being snapped up well ahead of the traditional four-day shopping sales period, with many sales kicking off earlier and lasting longer, as shoppers ticked off Christmas gift lists and stocked up on clothing, shoes, accessories, pet products and items for the home and garden, the report said.
NSW topped the table with more than 36 per cent of all purchases during the sales, and also grew the fastest, up 17 per cent year on year.
“We’re working hard in what’s still a challenging environment, with our delivery teams managing to get almost a million parcels a day to front doors across NSW alone on December 1 and December 2, and we’ve got our delivery people and processing around the country working around the clock as we head into a busy Christmas.”
Australia Post moved 15 per cent more air freight across the Cyber Weekend than last year, with 444 tonnes of parcels transported via 21 dedicated planes on the busiest day, Cyber Monday, which was also the biggest day for parcels entering the network with more than 2.8 million lodged.
Australians leading the charge
In another survey, Marketplace platform Mirakl stated that Australian shoppers reported an increase in online Christmas buying over the last two years, with those reporting doing their Christmas shopping online nearly doubling between 2019 and 2021.
In 2019, Australia had the lowest percentage of Christmas shopping done online in the world, at 24 per cent, but by 2021, that figure had nearly quadrupled to 42 per cent.
Although the highest growth in Christmas online buying for Australians happened between 2019 and 2020 – the first year of the pandemic – online Christmas shopping has continued to increase in 2021, showing that this trend will continue even after lockdowns and restrictions are lifted.
The Survey also revealed that consumers around the world approach Christmas buying differently, owing mostly to the impact of supply chain disruptions and the increase of online shopping throughout COVID-19 and beyond.
Why are Aussies shopping on online marketplaces?
More than seven in ten Australians are open to doing some Christmas shopping on online marketplaces this year according to Mirakl. Those who plan to shop on online marketplaces reported that the main driver of using an online marketplace for this shopping is the ability to offer better prices than traditional eCommerce (57 per cent).
This is consistent with global results – with nearly two thirds (60 per cent) of shoppers across the globe citing better prices as a reason why they’re using online marketplaces this Christmas season. Nearly all respondents (94 per cent) say they plan to maintain (or increase) their frequency of shopping on online marketplaces.
The report adds new context to the growth of online marketplaces from the consumer’s perspective and further underscores the market opportunity for marketplace operators and businesses looking to sell through these marketplaces.
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