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AmazonFresh’s imminent arrival in Australia

AmazonFresh4Online shopping continues to soar in Australia while online sales in almost all retail categories steadily increases.

The timing is right for the US e-commerce giant Amazon’s imminent launch in the country.

“There’s the prospect of the company launching its quick-turnaround grocery delivery service AmazonFresh. As we recently reported, Australian supermarkets have not yet conquered the online space, but AmazonFresh may succeed where others have not,” said Norman Morris, industry communications director at Roy Morgan Research.

Between 2013 and 2016, Food and Beverages saw a proportional growth of 67% (from almost 1.3 million to just over 2.1 million buyers per four weeks), Health and Beauty purchasers increased by 51%, Fashion shoppers surged by 35% and people buying Home and Garden products rose by 64%. Online shopping has risen for every product category in the chart above except baby products (which have remained stable).

“The data is unequivocal: Australians can’t get enough of shopping online. In any given four-week period, more and more of us are purchasing products as diverse as clothing, food, reading matter, health and beauty products, furniture, and electronics via the internet. While just over 540,000 Aussies currently make a purchase on Amazon in an average four weeks, this will almost certainly rise once the US e-commerce colossus launches its Australian operations and rolls out its local offerings.”

Over 8.7 million Australians aged 14+ (44.2%) bought one or more products via the internet. This equates to more than 1.7 million additional shoppers per four weeks since 2013, when nearly 7 million Aussies (36.4%) shopped online in an average four weeks.

Entertainment and Leisure items account for the greatest number of internet shoppers, with 3.9 million people buying something from this category in any given four weeks, followed by Fashion (2.3 million), Food and Beverages (2.1 million) and Reading Material (2 million).

Online shopping product categories purchased in average four weeks: 2013 vs 2016

online-shopping-categories-chart

Source: Roy Morgan Single Source (Australia), Jan-Dec 2013 (n=18,576) and Jan-Dec 2016 (n=14,330).

“Presently, Australian shoppers have access to a limited range of product categories on Amazon compared with the vast selection available to US customers, but local distribution centres will allow for much greater variety and shopping potential. Add to this the fact that 21.4% of Aussies say they ‘only buy from Australian online stores’, and Amazon’s antipodean future sure looks promising,” said Morris.

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