Covid to drive ongoing double-digit e-commerce growth in Australia

Australia’s e-commerce sector is expected to maintain double-digit growth in the next few years due to the impact of Covid-19, according to GlobalData. 

As the pandemic continued, e-commerce sales in the country grew by an estimated by 13.9 per cent last year and are set to reach a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10.3 per cent through 2024. Analysis of GlobalData also predicts the e-commerce sector will generate US$54.2 billion in 2024. 

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, online sales last December surged 55 per cent year on year. More than 5.6 million Australian households shopped online during the month, 21.3 per cent more than during the same month the year before. 

The change to online shopping has led to a rise in the use of electronic payments as consumers avoid cash transactions. Buy-now, pay-later solutions are becoming popular with almost 5.8 million Australian accounts from brands like Afterpay, Zip, Openpay, Humm and Klarna.

“The Covid-19 crisis opened the e-commerce market to a whole new set of consumers, who were not using online channels,” said Shivani Gupta, banking and payments senior analyst at GlobalData.

“A significant rise in consumer preference for online channels during the pandemic, coupled with a proliferation of online retailers and customised payment solutions will further drive e-commerce growth in Australia.”

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