Australian businesses are losing significant sales to overseas-based online retailers, PayPal has warned in a new survey of spending by Australian millennials – a term Wikipedia says is generally understood to cover people born between 1980 and 2000.
PayPal’s research is said to show that nearly 60 percent of millennials have shopped from both domestic and international retailers in the past 12 months. And more than half (53pc) of these shoppers don’t care if the online retailer is in Australia or based overseas.
Asked what drives them to shop from an international site, 54 percent pointed to free shipping. Some 42 percent stressed what they said was often faster delivery.
“Millennials may only comprise 21 per cent of the population but they contribute 34 per cent of retail spend, so there is a massive opportunity for Australian businesses with this audience,” PayPal says, adding: “They need to step up their offering to meet the demands of this highly valuable segment.”
