How to accelerate your FY23 e-commerce performance

(Source: Bigstock.)

As brands reflect back on the trading year that was FY22, many had hoped that it was a fresh start after two years of uncertain times which catapulted e-commerce years ahead in just a few short months.

Pattern has been monitoring and benchmarking the e-commerce performance of Australian retailers for a number of years and with the release of the FY22 Ecommerce Acceleration Report, continues to document and report on the key performance indicators that benchmark Australian e-commerce retail.

According to Australia Post, more than 80 per cent of Australians made a purchase online last year, representing 19.3 per cent of total retail spending, equating to a record $62.3 billion. We’re predicting this share of wallet is set to rise as post-pandemic behaviours stick and the convenience, simplicity and speed of e-commerce continue to improve with greater focus and investment compared to pre-pandemic days.

FY22 was a perfect combination of increased traffic, conversion and average order value, resulting in 22 per cent more revenue compared to the previous year. 

Q1 saw strong performance with much of NSW and Victoria in lockdown. This resulted in the first three months of the financial year exceeding FY21 revenue performance by 51 per cent. NSW performed particularly strong with 58 per cent more revenue than last year and an average 36 per cent share of all traffic and 40 per cent of sales, peaking at 49 per cent in August 2021 with strict lockdowns in place.

Outside of lockdowns, key promotional periods continue to drive strong online results with Black Friday being the top traffic driver for the year with 146 per cent more sessions than the daily average. This event also delivered 3.5 times more revenue than a normal day, making it the highest single revenue day for the year. 

As consumers discover new brands online, we saw 60 per cent of traffic driven by search engines, a slight growth on the year. We’ve seen a strong increase in paid search investment with 28 per cent more traffic and 34 per cent more revenue from SEM compared to last year. In order to accelerate this channel further, it’s important to keep up to date with Google’s new campaign types such as Performance Max where we’ve seen strong initial results in driving additional traffic and revenue. 

SEO, although sometimes overlooked in favour of paid campaigns as it’s a much longer-term but ultimately cost-effective strategy, generated the highest share of traffic and revenue for the year. Google doesn’t give much away but it’s important to stay up to date with any algorithm updates to understand how these may impact your SEO and on-site content strategy. 

If you’d like to understand how you can accelerate your FY23 performance, join us Wednesday August 17 at 10am ahead of peak trading to discuss the actionable tactics you need to ensure a successful year ahead. You can register here.

Pattern is the category leader in global e-commerce and marketplace acceleration. With a presence in 18 global locations, Pattern’s e-commerce expertise and data-driven insights help brands to deliver profitable growth on their e-commerce sites and marketplaces. 

If you would like to discuss your brand’s performance against our industry benchmarks or need support accelerating your e-commerce in FY23, reach out at au@pattern.com.