More Australians shopping online: the latest figures from the ACMA
25 November 2011
This is a guest post by Joseph Di Gregorio at the Australian Communications and Media Authority.
The Australian Communications and Media Authority’s (ACMA) latest research report, E-commerce marketplace in Australia: online shopping, is our first look at the developing online shopping market from both a supplier and user perspective. The report reveals insightful findings and developments, and helps consumers and businesses see how e-commerce may develop over time.
Here’s a glimpse of the research findings we found the most fascinating:
How many Australians are shopping online?
Approximately 62 per cent of internet users purchased a good or service online in the six months to April 2011.Who shops online?
Internet users aged 35-44 years were more likely to have shopped online than any other age group (73 per cent).Those with higher incomes—$150,000 or more per annum—were also more likely to have shopped online (86 per cent).
Why do we shop online?
Convenience (67 per cent of people purchasing online) and price (47 per cent of people purchasing online) are the main reasons consumers shop online.How do we shop online?
Online shopping is predominately conducted via computer, with mobile phone internet e-commerce largely used for banking and bill payment. In the six months to April 2011, 91 per cent of people who shop online purchased online using a credit card and/or money transfer service (eg PayPal).What do we buy online?
Travel goods, tickets and accommodation are the most popular items purchased online, although there is some variation based on age and location of the purchaser.Where do we shop – Australia or overseas?
The majority of online shoppers continue to buy from Australian websites (53 per cent). The proportion of online shoppers also accessing overseas websites increased from 19 per cent to 29 per cent from November 2009 to April 2011. This increase is likely due to an increase in the Australian dollar.Supporting local industries was the leading reason why people mainly shopped on Australian websites (30 per cent).
Where do the majority of online shoppers live?
Aussies from all over the country shop online. However, Australians living in remote locations had a higher incidence of online shopping than those living anywhere else—70 per cent of internet users in remote or very remote areas had purchased a good or service online in the six months to April 2011.What about Australian businesses?
Businesses are increasing engagement with consumers via the internet: 59 per cent of Australian small to medium enterprises had taken orders online from consumers at April 2011. In April 2011, 18 per cent of Australian small to medium businesses used social media for business purposes – an 8 percentage point increase from April 2010.The full report is available on the ACMA's website.
Also, please see our interactive presentation: http://engage.acma.gov.au/commsreport/
Thanks,
Joseph Di Gregorio
ACMA Manager
Communications Analysis Section
You can follow Joseph on Twitter at @joeACMA
Great to see people wanting to support local industries even when shopping online! But I guess a reason why people shop overseas is because the goods are unique and not available locally.
Hi Jackson
Thanks for your comment! It is good to see support for Australian businesses. The ACMA report showed that the number of Australians purchasing mostly from overseas websites because a product was not available in Australia has declined from 56 per cent to 41 per cent. It’s hard to judge the cause of this shift, but it seems likely to be a result of more Australian businesses getting online and those already online expanding their product ranges.
After spending the weekend at a massive shopping centre and waiting hours and hours in queues all day, I can totally relate to why people are heading online to buy their Christmas presents this year.
They say that people prefer the “experience” of traditional shopping, however I really don’t know what people enjoy about driving to the shopping centre, trying to find a car park, walking to the shop, searching isle by isle to find what they want, and then waiting in a big long line for the privilege of paying some clueless teenager???
Seriously, why would people do this? Instead they can head online and find what they want and have that personally delivered to their door.
The Online experience wins hands down.
I guess that interesting point of view are the converted numbers. However if we add to this all the influence that online shopping has to the brick and mortar stores the importance of a good e-commerce strategy is even more serious.
How many of us browse prices and compare products online before buying on physical stores?
It’s what Google calls FMOT (first Moment of truth)
Internet is everywhere and it makes our life more easier like shopping without leaving our homes. It’s good to know that still large number of consumers were still supporting the local industry.
Awesome article Joseph ,
More and more people buying online.
Most of them do not have a time to go in normal store.
Ned