Despite a slowing growth trend in online sales, Australians increasingly prefer to spend their dollars via the Internet rather than in traditional retail stores, a recent report indicates.
The NAB Online Retail Sales Index reveals that Australians spent $10.5 billion online in 2011. While online spending accounts for only 4.9 percent of overall sales, online retail still saw 29 percent growth compared to 2.5 percent growth for traditional retail sales.
Brick-and-mortar stores remain strong in food sales, but 47 percent of online sales came from auctions, cosmetics, fashion, and department and variety stores. International online sales bypassed domestic online sales in October 2010. Since then, however, growth trends between the two have remained very similar.
“The majority of Australians say they prefer to buy online domestically, and many have never transacted overseas,” says Simon Smith, director at Quantium.
The report also shows that shoppers in their 30s and 40s maintain the strongest online spending presence.
