Online shopping has grown 44.3 per cent in the last year according to Australia Post, based off of the deliveries it made during January 2021 and January 2020.

According to the logistics firm, more than 5.2 million households shopped online in January – 25 per cent more than the year prior.

Though all categories saw strong year-on-year growth, food and liquor purchases improved the most (50 per cent) during the month, followed by home & garden (48 per cent) and fashion (40 per cent).

And while purchases at ‘variety stores’ saw only 27 per cent growth, they still made up the majority of purchases, showing customers are still looking to get a wide variety of items from one source.

The update comes after the business said it has seen its revenue spike in the six months to 31 December 15.5 per cent to $4.3 billion, largely off the back of soaring parcel deliveries.

Due to the increasing uptake of e-commerce in Australia, the business’ parcels and services sector saw revenue grow 25.9 per cent to $3.4 billion, while its letters division fell 13.6 per cent to $900,000.

Acting group chief executive Rodney Boys said the result was a significant achievement given the uncertainty of the Covid-19 pandemic, and the network changes the business has needed to implement in order to continue servicing customers.