Australia Post eCommerce Industry Report Is Here

A powerful report from Australia Post came out today and I'm delighted to share some of their insights! Head over their LinkedIn Page or the Australia Post website to download your own copy of this report.

"2020 has been a year like no other for eCommerce. The latest statistics show that growth was up over 80% year on year (YOY) in the 8 weeks since the COVID-19 pandemic was declared by the WHO, making it clear that the industry has not only kicked up a gear, it has gone into overdrive. Though it’s still too early to say how the industry will look post-pandemic, it’s clear this crisis has set a new baseline. We had predicted that by 2025 online shopping would account for 16–18% of total retail spend, but the recent growth we’ve seen suggests the pandemic has brought this forward. We’re anticipating that by the end of 2020, online spending will hold a 15% share of the total retail market*. Black Friday/Cyber Monday 2019 was a record-breaker with YOY growth of 31.6%. As shoppers become more accustomed to this event, so do retailers and in 2019 this shopping festival spanned more of the industry than previous years. The growth of this event was unprecedented until recently when it was overtaken by Easter 2020. April 2020 was a historic month as online shopping fully ramped up again. More than 200,000 new shoppers entered the market and purchased something online for the first time, and over a third of new shoppers made multiple purchases. Seasoned shoppers also increased their purchase frequency with over half of them buying online more than twice in April 2020. This speaks to a high level of engagement in the market and the cementing of a new trend in buying online. Consequently, online purchases were up 6.8% for the 30 days in April 2020, when compared to the 30 days to 18 December 2019 which encompassed Black Friday and the Christmas rush. In fact, the four days from Easter Tuesday 2020 topped the four days from Cyber Monday 2019 by 2% making this the busiest period in online shopping history.

Evolving Buyer Behaviour

On 11 March 2020, the World Health Organisation declared COVID-19 a pandemic. The following week saw online purchases up 28% YOY, before continuing to climb and hitting a peak of 135% YOY in the week after Easter. To put this into perspective, an average of 1.6 million households bought something online each week in 2019; in April 2020 this increased to 2.5 million households per week.

Shoppers who wouldn’t usually buy online e.g. older demographics, are quickly learning to use this medium; as are retailers who have not previously held a strong online presence.

For March 2020, total retail spend (excluding cafes, restaurants and takeaway) was up 15.5% YOY and 13.7% on February 2020, with this growth largely driven by bulk purchases in food retail.

Over March, online also saw strong growth, accounting for 12.3% of total retail spend, compared to 11.3% in 2019.2April is traditionally a quiet month for eCommerce, as people cut back on spending after Christmas. However, April 2020 set a new record, with online purchases 6.8% higher than the previous largest recorded period – the 30 days to 18 December 2019 which encompassed Black Friday and the pre-Christmas rush. To demonstrate the scale of this growth, the four days from Easter Tuesday 2020 was 2% higher when compared to the four days from Cyber Monday in 2019. This influx of purchasing in April 2020 brought the number of households shopping online for the month to a massive 5.2 million, an increase of 31% when compared to the average in 2019. Consequently, online goods spend grew by 95% YOY in the same month.

This industry-wide shift has been as dramatic as it has been swift and will no doubt alter future buying behaviour. While the current acceleration we’re seeing may begin to steady, many of the changes we’ve seen are likely here to stay through the rest of 2020 and beyond."