Nearly 14 million or around 70 per cent of Australians aged 14 and over now visit online shopping or auction sites in an average four weeks.
However, the figures show there is still a certain amount of ‘window-shopping’ online as the latest research by Roy Morgan found around 9.5 million Australians (47 per cent) actually purchase something online in an average four weeks.
This gap of over four million Australians who browse online shopping and auction sites, but don’t follow through with an online purchase, represent a huge opportunity for online shopping and auction sites to exploit.
EBay is easily Australia’s favourite online shopping or auction site with over 9.4 million Australians visiting the site in an average four weeks ahead of local Australian second-hand shopping site Gumtree with 5.6 million visitors.
High profile American online retailer Amazon sits in third spot with 4.7 million visitors, twice as many as fourth placed Kogan.com with nearly 2.3 million visitors.
Australia’s Top 15 Online Shopping & Auction sites—visitation in an average four weeks over 12 months to March 2018
Other online shopping and auction sites to attract in excess of one million visitors in an average four weeks include Groupon with nearly 1.8 million visitors, Catch with over 1.2 million visitors and OzBargain with over 1.1 million visitors.
Over seven million women visit an online shopping or auction site in an average four weeks ahead of around 6.9 million men. EBay is easily the top online shopping site for both women and men although it is visited by more men than women—nearly 4.9 million men in an average four weeks compared to 4.5 million women.
Gumtree is clearly the second-most visited online shopping or auction site for both men and women. Over 2.9 million men and over 2.7 million women visit the site in an average four weeks. Amazon is the third-most visited online shopping site for both while just over 2.3 million women and a similar number of men visit Amazon in an average four weeks.
However, after the top three online shopping and auction sites there are significant gender differences between several other leading online shopping and auction sites. Significantly more women than men visit Groupon, Catch, MyShopping, Scoopon and LivingSocial while significantly more men than women visit Kogan.com, OzBargain and GraysOnline.
While online shopping in Australia is booming there are still millions of consumers not visiting online shopping sites at all, and over three million that browse but don’t purchase, according to Roy Morgan CEO Michele Levine.
“There is a large cohort of well over four million Australians who visit online shopping websites led by eBay, Gumtree, Amazon, Kogan.com, Groupon, Catch, OzBargain and others who don’t follow through and make the purchase. These online ‘window-shoppers’ represent a huge audience of Australians who are already living in the online world but haven’t taken the final plunge to purchase through the online shopping channels they know exist,” she said.
Much has been made of Amazon’s Australian-based website.
Much has been made of US online giant Amazon’s new Australian-based website which launched late last year but it is auction site eBay that is clearly the most popular online shopping site visited by Australians, Levine said. “However, Amazon’s decision to operate an Australian-based website means the world’s largest online retailer is sure to mount a serious challenge to eBay’s preeminent position amongst online shopping sites in Australia in the coming years.
“Most other leading online shopping sites in Australia are based around providing ‘bargains’ and great value deals for shoppers. The nature of these ‘bargain-based’ websites attracts many Australians to browse the bargains on offer, but, as our overall figures show, a significant proportion of Australians visiting online shopping sites do not follow through with a purchase.”
This story was originally published by Appliance Retailer.
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