The payment gateway, which claims more than 17,000 merchant customers and says it processes a quarter of all online purchases, said that during December alone online spending amounted to $1.56 billion.
While over the past few years, December’s online growth rates have started to slow, in 2014 the trend reversed, with 22 percent year-on-year growth, up from 17 percent the previous year.
However, eWay found December’s sales down from October, when sales peaked for the year at $1.57 billion.
Electronics topped the purchase categories, making up 13.5 percent of the spend, followed by clothing at four percent and general merchandise at 3.2 percent.
Boxing Day online sales amounted to $35.8 million, up 17.4 percent on last year.
Matt Bullock, eWay founder and CEO, said the figures showed more retailers are moving their operations online and becoming savvier with what they offer.
“There’s a big shift, more so than ever before,” he said. “If you’re a business owner and you’re not selling your stuff on the Internet, then you might not be a business owner in the long-term.”
Some 83 percent of retailers who participated in Deloitte’s 2014 Christmas survey expected to see online growth over the period, with more than half of respondents expecting growth to reach 10 percent or more.
However, for almost half of those surveyed, online was expected to represent less than two percent of total sales.
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