Books, electronics most popular Amazon purchases, research shows

Heather McIlvaine

18th Jun 2018

New research from global research firm, Field Agent, has found that books and electronics are the most popular categories on Amazon in Australia.

Based on a recent survey of 700 shoppers who buy from either Amazon’s US and/or Australian sites, Field Agent found that 52 per cent of respondents had purchased books and 47 per cent had purchased electronics from the e-commerce company’s Australian site so far.

The survey comes after a March survey, which showed that 48 per cent of Aussie online shoppers had looked but not bought anything from Amazon’s local site, with a further 40 per cent who either hadn’t looked or didn’t even know it existed.

In a blog post about the research, Field Agent noted that there have already been reports of marketplace sellers making a swift exit after months of low or no sales, although e-commerce experts have suggested such sellers are being too hasty.

Price, range still problematic

According to the survey, 39 per cent of Amazon shoppers have shopped both the American and Australian sites in the past six months, but 35 per cent have not made a purchase from the local site, with 40 per cent citing price as the reason.

This is largely due to the fact that the Australian site went live with listings only from third-party sellers. However, price is not the only reason.

Forty per cent of respondents said the lack of range and not being able to find what they wanted was the reason they haven’t made a purchase from Amazon’s Australian site.

While Fulfilment by Amazon had not yet launched at the time of the survey, most shoppers were happy with the company’s delivery cost and speed.

Prime cost too steep

The upcoming launch locally of Amazon Prime, which includes free two-day shipping among other benefits, is expected to improve satisfaction even further.

However, Aussie shoppers may be less willing to pay for the service than their American counterparts. In the US, Amazon’s 90 million Prime subscribers pay US$119 annually (approximately A$160), but most respondents said they would not be willing pay more than $99 for the service.

In its blog post, Field Agent has speculated that Australians may simply not foresee themselves purchasing enough to justify the cost of a Prime membership.

Nearly 90 per cent of respondents have at least one media subscription, and many subscribe to multiple services. Sixty-eight per cent claim they wouldn’t cancel any of their existing subscriptions if they were to add Amazon Prime.