Who's Shopping? Nearly 9.5 million Australians

New research from Roy Morgan shows that over the year to March 2018, 9.46 million Australians 14+ (46.8%) purchased something online in an average four week period, an increase of 590,000 in just 12 months. It also represents an increase of 2.3 million since 2014.

These are the latest findings from the Roy Morgan Single Source survey of over 50,000 consumers conducted in the 12 months ended March 2018, including over 5,000 online shoppers. Entertainment and Leisure items account for the greatest number of internet shoppers, with 4.5 million people buying something from this category in any given four weeks, followed by Fashion (2.7 million), Food and Beverages (2.4 million) and Reading Material (2.2 million). Online shopping has risen for every product category in the chart except for Furniture. Between 2017 and 2018, Fashion Shoppers (2.7m) and Health and Beauty products (1.4m) both increased sales by 21.1% over the year, with Entertainment and Leisure up by 11.1%. While online shopping is gaining ever-increasing momentum with Australian consumers from all walks of life, those most likely to make purchases this way still tend to be from the more technologically savvy end of the spectrum. Indeed, viewing these consumers through the lens of Roy Morgan’s Technology Adoption Segments reveals that nearly half of all online shoppers (49.1%) fall under the umbrella of either Technology Early Adopters or Professional Technology Mainstream, the two most digitally inclined segments of the population.

Michele Levine, CEO, Roy Morgan, says:“The data is unequivocal, Australians can’t get enough of shopping online. In any given four-week period, more and more of us are purchasing products as diverse as entertainment, clothing, food, reading matter, health and beauty products, furniture, and electronics via the internet. With nearly 9.5 million Australians or 46.8% purchasing online in an average four week period and the rapid growth over recent years, this is a retail revolution.This rapid growth represents a major opportunity for the growth of Amazon when it develops its full product offering. Australian bricks and mortar retailers are under considerable pressure from overseas and local online retailers。”

Not only that, the late adopters of the technology community are also now the highest growing demographic for online shopping. Referring to ourTechnology Adoption Segments, Technology Traditionalists (those who will only try a new technology when it’s become mainstream) recorded a growth of 7ppts, while Technophobes grew by 7.1ppts, the highest of all segments. Comparatively, the Technology Early Adopters saw a growth of only 3.9ppts, and Digital Life (mostly tech-savvy students and young part-time workers) just 4ppts. This being said, the growth in online shopping among late technological adopters means more for some industries than others. Interestingly, Pet Products, Health & Beauty, and Fashion were some of the strongest online growth industries reported by Roy Morgan between March 2015 and March 2018, and each of those industries has a notable proportion of Technology Traditionalists or Technophobes.