Australians spent $45.6 billion online in 2020: NAB

Online sales jumped in January after a dip in December, according to the latest NAB Online Retail Sales Index.

And it’s estimated that in the 12 months to January, Aussies spent $45.61 billion online.

The index found e-commerce rose 4 per cent during January following the 4.7 per cent fall a month prior, while year-on-year online sales grew 45.6 per cent. These figures differ slightly from the results released yesterday by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, which saw online grow 1.6 per cent and 62.8 per cent on a monthly and annual basis for the same period.

According to NAB chief economist Alan Oster, metro areas continued to outpace regional uptake of online sales, and takeaway food continued to see strong buy-in from Australian consumers.

“While [takeaway food] is still the smallest share of spend, with such high growth over the past year, its share of spend has increased from 4.1% a year ago to 5.3% in January,” Oster said.

“The largest contribution to growth for this category in January was from the two biggest sales states, NSW and VIC.”

February’s result is likely to feel the impact of the Western Australian and Victorian ‘circuit breaker’ lockdowns, which shuttered retailers for a number of days in an attempt to halt the spread of the virus.

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