Australian e-commerce will exceed $70 billion by 2025, with groceries and electronics becoming the hot-selling products

Australia is a mature and developed economy. According to Credit Suisse's latest 2021 Global Wealth Report, Australia's per capita wealth ranks first in the world. With the rise of online platforms and the emergence of logistics centers in Australia in recent years, more and more local consumers have begun to actively participate in online shopping.

In 2020 , Australia's e-commerce growth rate reached 22%, and online retail sales accounted for 10% of total retail sales. Especially after the epidemic, Australia's e-commerce has developed rapidly. In 2020, the country's e-commerce transaction volume reached US$41.2 billion, a year-on-year increase of 16.8%.

According to Global Data's forecast, the transaction volume of Australia's e-commerce market, dominated by retailers such as Woolworths and Coles, will grow by 13.4% in 2021 and is expected to exceed the US$70 billion mark in 2025.

Global Data pointed out that the growth momentum of Australia's e-commerce market mainly comes from the growing number of online shoppers. In addition, groceries, electronics, game subscriptions, health and beauty are the main "contributors" to sales growth.

According to survey statistics, Australians buy groceries online at least once a week. Woolworths' e-commerce profits increased by 91.8% in 2020, while Coles' online sales also increased by 89.6%.

In terms of electronic products, Australian consumers spend 62% of their time purchasing electronic products. From 2016 to 2021, Australia's online consumption of electronic products has achieved significant growth, with an average annual industry growth rate of 18%.

According to statistics from Amazon Australia, due to the impact of isolation policies and working from home, wireless Bluetooth headsets, digital pens, mini projectors, webcams with microphones, essential oil aromatherapy machines, power banks, etc., all electronic products that are essential for home and office use are more popular among consumers.

Moreover, the small home appliance market has also attracted the attention of many Australian consumers after the epidemic. For example, in Australia, most families live in independent houses with gardens, and automatic timed watering devices are particularly popular among local consumers.

Small and novel electronic products that conform to aesthetic trends, as well as smart home appliances for lazy people, have also begun to attract attention. It is estimated that the annual growth rate of the small home appliance market will reach 6.1% in the next five years. Sellers can also refer to this when planning and selecting products.

In addition, 43.3% of Australian consumers choose payment methods such as PayPal, Afterpay and Apple Pay when shopping online. As of now, the transaction volume generated by Afterpay alone accounts for 7.7% of the total e-commerce volume. In general, it is expected that the sales generated by payment cards in e-commerce transactions in 2021 will account for about 37.2% of the total.

Shivani Gupta, senior banking and payments analyst at Global Data , said the pandemic has accelerated the development of e-commerce in Australia, and online shopping is expected to continue, while digital payments will further promote the development of e-commerce in the country.

With the rapid growth of e-commerce in Australia, coupled with the free and flexible Internet and e-commerce environment, Australia's e-commerce market is favored by many corporate sellers and can be said to be a blue ocean for cross-border e-commerce.

Australia

E-commerce