Shoppers are heading online in greater numbers, but pure-play online retailers still have some work to do to win the trust of Australian consumers.
New figures from the KPMG 2017 Global Online Consumer Report show 44 per cent of Australians made their last online purchase from a traditional retailer's online store while only 35 per cent purchased from an online-only retailer, significantly below the global percentage of 50 per cent.
The statistics may be welcomed by bricks-and-mortar retailers, who have been under threat from the emergence of online shopping, according to KPMG national leader of consumer markets, Trent Duvall.
"This shows there is an opportunity at the moment for bricks-and-mortar retailers to secure their positions," Mr Duvall said.
"It comes down to trust. These are brands that we have grown up with, that have our trust, and trust is very important in the online buying experience."
The finding from KPMG was backed up by the founder of one of Australia's largest online retail sites, Ruslan Kogan of Kogan.com, who said it was not surprising.
"Australian online retail is still behind more advanced online retail markets like the US, UK and China etc where online penetration is nearly double what it is in Australia," he said.
"The Australian online retail market is forecast to grow at 11.5 per cent per annum compound annual growth rate through to calendar year 2019. As this eventuates, we will see more and more Australians change their purchasing habits."
The KPMG report, which surveyed 18,430 people in 50 countries, including almost 1000 in Australia, also found that while Millennials were most likely to have used a smartphone to shop online, the most active online shoppers were actually Generation X. This demographic averaged nearly 19 transactions per year per person – 20 per cent more than the younger generation.
Mr Duvall said stage of life and income levels were the primary drivers of Generation X's spending habits.
"Thinking about Gen X and what they're going through at the moment, they're in the household formation period and peak career ages and they're incredibly busy, so the fact is they will be shopping at home on a tablet," he said.
Hey, big male spender
The study also found that while men and women shopped with a similar frequency, men spent significantly more per transaction.
Male respondents had spent on average about $US220 ($293) on their last online purchase, compared to $US151 for women. This was largely driven by the difference in categories, with men more likely to be buying luxury goods or electronics, and women shopping for cosmetics or food, but the top overall category for Australians shopping online was women's apparel.
KPMG found that the types of goods that were growing most quickly when it came to online sales were those that did not need to be tried first, and also those where shoppers could have a reasonable level of faith in the quality of the product.
In the next year online spending on telecommunication devices was forecast to increase 4.5 per cent, while sporting equipment and goods were predicted to leap 4.4 per cent and furniture and home decor items were likely to jump 4.3 per cent.
Household goods and appliances and perfume and cologne were also tipped for strong growth in the next 12 months, at 3.5 per cent and 2.8 per cent respectively.
Despite the fact the online shopping market was deemed to be worth $US1.9 trillion in 2016, Mr Duvall said bricks-and-mortar stores were here to stay.
"We will still be going shopping in the future, but I expect the nature of how shops will look and feel will be different," he said.
"There will be deals that pop up over Wi-Fi and people will look to explore products in store and then have them shipped home. I think shopping centres themselves also need to evolve because at the moment their infrastructure is not set up for these changes."
