According to the predictions for the retail ecommerce market, based on stats collected since 2009, we are seeing retail sales increase by 14.4%, which equals to approximately 10 billion dollars. In Australia, ecommerce sales have increased to 17.3% and account for more than 4% of the total retail sales. By the end of this year, this figure will rise by an additional 4.5%.
Based on these facts, by 2017, the world will see a double-digit increase and retail sales will increase to approximately 14.52%. This will stand for 5.6% of Australia’s retail sales. Today, Australia stands in the middle of the ecommerce market when compared to Asia-Pacific countries like India, Indonesia, China, Japan, and South Korea.
An interesting fact is that the highest number of customers for the ecommerce market in Australia are the second highest recorded in the Asia-Pacific region. EMarketer predicts that by the end of 2015, 79.4% of the total number of internet users in Australia will use ecommerce websites to purchase things. The leading country will likely be Japan, which may have approximately 82.0% internet users. Australia is a little further down the list, mainly because of its comparative population size of digital buyers.
However, investing in ecommerce businesses in Australia is a good idea because it has a crowded ecommerce market with international competitors. In fact, the country showed the highest number of retail customer visits during a week of study. Sites like eBay have also recorded the highest number of visitors, followed by Amazon, and then other ecommerce websites, like AliExpress.
When we further look at the ecommerce sales since 2010, it has increased from $27 billion to $37 billion over a three-year period. This shows that there is a steady increase in ecommerce businesses, which offers a promise for success in the Australian market. This also proves that there is a viable opportunity for online businesses to succeed.
The reason for the steady increase is that consumers in Australia are spending more via online shopping than before. In 2006, an average income earner used to spend approximately $1,000 on online shopping, but by 2013, the average expended by an income earner rose to almost $2,000 and more. The explanation for this is that with time, as awareness and internet security improved, an increasing number of people started to explore online shopping.
Another reason why there is a boom in the ecommerce market in Australia is that 73% of the internet users are between the ages of 34 and 44. This means that there is a higher market in Australia for ecommerce businesses. Moreover, through mobile ecommerce, there is bound to be an increase in the success of ecommerce businesses.
Since the Australian Government is taking steps towards reinforcing legal proceedings to make ecommerce safe, people can trust online businesses even more. Moreover, using their credit cards online will become a much safer activity by 2016. Therefore, if you have been thinking about establishing an online ecommerce business, then it is a great idea. You can start now in 2015 and have great financial success by the end of 2017.