Online sales climbed 12.6% last month, according to NAB’s December Online Retail Sales Index.
Australians spent $14.7 billion at online retail stores, in all, last year, as consumers flocked to their computer or phone to buy Xbox One games, toys, food and booze.
Year-on-year, NAB’s online index surged 12.6% in December. Last month, online sales rose 1.58%, on average, for the three months October- December. E-sales rose 1.65% in November.
Many consumers did the bulk of their Internet shopping in November to allow time for delivery, when major e-commerce events like also Click Frenzy took place.
But online sales continued to grow in December, totaling $1.27 bn, as consumers rushed to buy more Christmas goodies.
Online purchases of Electronic Games, Toys surged a massive 32%, due to release of Sony PS4 and Xbox One, which prompted a surge in subscriptions to online gaming platforms like XBox Live, and gaming titles like Battlefield 4, Ryse, Dead Rising 3, and Minecraft.
Groceries and Liquor web purchases rose 24% last month, meaning supermarket majors Coles and Woolworths were likely to be big beneficiaries of e-sales boom, media rose 21%, although purchases of ‘Personal & Recreational Goods’ like golf balls and gym memberships fell (-1%YoY), the only category to contract in December.
The improved growth trend for online retail sales reflects almost uniform “improvement in conditions” at category level, said Alan Oster, NAB Chief Economist.
Online sales now equates to 6.5% of spending at traditional bricks & mortar retailers.
But its no longer ‘clicks’, as in pure online players that are benefiting from the e-commerce rush, ‘clicks and bricks’ operators, like Coles, Myer and JB Hi-Fi that have both online and store presence, are now the real winners, Oster told CN.
However, retail stores also rebounded in recent months, albeit slightly at 0.6%, in November, seasonally adjusted.
The recent growth in web sales comes after the relatively flat Q3, August-October quarter.
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