Although e-commerce is rising among all Australians, it’s the less wealthy who are driving this growth, according to new research.
Roy Morgan has already found that online shopping is growing strongly, with 9.46 million Australians now shopping online – a gain of more than half a million compared with just a year ago. But where is this rise in demand coming from?
According to Roy Morgan research, it’s from “the less affluent demographics”. Australians in the FG socioeconomic quintile, those classified as ‘Light spenders’, and those belonging to the Roy Morgan value segments ‘Fairer deal’ (9.5 ppts increase) and ‘Something better’ (15 ppts increase) all recorded higher growth rates of internet shopping between March 2015 and March 2018 than their wealthier counterparts.
The late adopters of new technology are also now the fastest-growing demographic for online shopping. What Roy Morgan describes as ‘Technology traditionalists’ (those who will only try a new technology when it’s become mainstream) recorded a growth of seven ppts, while ‘Technophobes’ grew by 7.1 ppts – the highest of all the segments.
Roy Morgan CEO Michele Levine said: “This trend in the growth of online-shopping demographics is very significant. Those demographics that have less disposable income, those who consider themselves light spenders, and those who shy from new technology are the strongest-growing segments.
“Previous barriers to entry for lower-income demographics have been broken down as the cost of technology has become reasonable and shipping, mostly from America or parts of Asia, has fallen as large retail giants move in on the Australian market.”