More Payment Options Needed

The 2022 Australia Post eCommerce Industry Report presents some really compelling figures about the continued COVID-driven boom in Australian eCommerce.

The report shows that Australians are moving to online shopping like never before, and if we thought 2020’s numbers were significant, 2021's numbers are even more so. The growth in the number of households shopping online in 2021 did steady compared to 2020, but is still almost double the pre-pandemic baseline with 9.2 million households now shopping online.

Australians spent a record $62.3 billion online in 2021, up from $50 billion in 2020. The 2021 figure accounted for 19.3% of total retail spend in Australia.

Despite the growth, Australia is still well behind other countries in terms of how often we shop online. 84% of Australian respondents in the Cross-border eCommerce Shopper Survey say they shop online at least once a month, but only 25% say they shop online once a week. This is well behind countries such as South Korea who have 53% of respondents saying they shop online once a week. So there is still more growth to come for online shopping here in Australia.

For this to grow online shoppers are looking for a great end to end customer experience to ensure retailers capture their loyalty. The report points to key areas that shoppers are looking at retailers to up their game in - these are headed by product availability, delivery options and eco-friendly packaging.

Most interestingly, 23% of online shoppers surveyed said that available payment options is an area where online retailers need to pick up their game. That’s nearly 1 in every 4 online shoppers asking for better payment options. That is significant.

As the number of people shopping online and the frequency of online shopping per household increases, it is clear being able to offer a variety of ways to pay is vital to capture this fast growing market. And the new methods for making and accepting payments are not slowing down either with new providers and services emerging all the time, so online retailers need to be prepared for what is coming next by having an easily adaptable payments infrastructure.

The Australia Post eCommerce Industry Report clearly shows that online shopping isn’t going anywhere soon and every retailer needs to make sure they are ready for what will happen next, to make sure they don’t miss out on this rapidly growing opportunity.