Australians are embracing the rise of e-commerce, with one in every five retail sales occurring online in 2022, despite a return to physical retail.

This is according to the latest 2023 Australia Post e-commerce industry report, which shows that Australians spent a record $63.8 billion online in 2022.

9.4 million Aussie households, some 82 per cent, now shop online. Interestingly, November was the most popular month for online shopping, with 6 million households making a purchase during the Cyber Monday/ Black Friday sales period.

Despite record sales, online shopping has, however, steadied since the height of the pandemic, surpassing 2021 spending by just 1.7 per cent.

“We are back to the pre-COVID trend, which is low single digit growth but what is growing is penetration,” explains Australia Post general manager for parcel, post and e-commerce services, Gary Starr.

“Penetration pre-COVID was at about 11 per cent, it got to 20 per cent at the peak at the back end of last year and for the full year it was about 18 per cent.

“And I would expect that it will continue to grow, now we are saying it‘s harder in the very short term given what’s going on with the macro economy but generally speaking penetration will grow and will get to about $1 in every $3 spent will be online for retail in the next decade.”

Queensland and Western Australia both represent the biggest growth markets, with online purchases up 11.1 per cent and 11 per cent respectively.

The likes of Black Friday and other online-only sales ‘events’ will also bolster the sector.

“The real message is those two weeks, that cyber period, is now the biggest single online shopping event for the year and it has been for a few years now and even last year with shops reopening it was still up on the year before,” Starr said.

“And I think there are two elements; retailers elongating the sales event and consumers looking for value and taking advantage of those sales.

“It starts almost a week or ten days pre Black Friday and it continues through the period after, which is why that two week period that we consider is growing every year.”