Australians have smashed online shopping records over the past financial year, with pet products seeing the greatest growth at 38 per cent.
Australia Post delivered a record number of parcels to 9.3 million Aussie households during the financial year. This is just the second time ever that total households shopping online has surpassed nine million across the nation.
This was up from 9.1 million in the previous financial year, while online purchases grew almost 12 per cent.
The six months from July to December 2021 were particularly strong, and an average of 5.6 million households purchased something online each month in FY22, 1.5 million more than the average in FY20.
NSW residents received the highest number of parcels, with one in three purchases destined for the state, and grew more than 27 per cent year on year.
Also seeing significant growth in online purchases were the ACT (more than 27 per cent) and Western Australia (14 per cent).
Rose Yip, Australia Post Head of e-commerce Analytics, said the growth in online shopping had accelerated beyond expectations throughout the pandemic.
“We’ve seen more than 900 million parcels delivered in the last three years alone, which says so much about how quickly e-commerce has grown in a short amount of time.
“It’s now the norm for so many Australians, with more than five million households regularly shopping online every month, which is why we’ve not only increased our network capacity but we’re investing in more new facilities, technology and our fleet to set up a strong and sustainable network for the future.”
The most popular buys were pet products (up 38 per cent YOY), tools and garden items (29 per cent) and products from major and discount stores (32 per cent), while baby products and athleisure items also grew.
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