How Aussies pay when they shop online vs in-store

Heather McIlvaine

22nd Aug 2019

New research from CouriersPlease reveals how Australian consumers pay when they shop online compared to in-store.

According to a recent survey of 1021 Australian consumers, the most common way people pay online is by credit card (42 per cent), followed closely by debit card (40 per cent).

Despite the rapid rise of buy now pay later solutions, such as Afterpay, Zip Pay, Lay-by and others, only 18 per cent of survey respondents said they used this payment method when shopping online.

When shopping in-store, Australian consumers are more likely to pay with their debit cards (47 per cent), followed by credit card (35 per cent) and cash (16 per cent).

A significantly smaller number of respondents (3 per cent) said they use buy now pay later when shopping in-store.

This discrepancy is leading to the accumulation of debt for online shoppers, the survey found, with 30 per cent of respondents saying that online shopping has created more credit card for them than in-store shopping.

More than half (57 per cent) of those surveyed said they pay off their credit card in full every month, 43 per cent pay off just up to 75 per cent of their balance each month and 32 per cent pay off less than 50 per cent of their balance each month.

“Our research indicates that online shopping transactions in Australia are more likely to have a more positive growth rate than with in-store purchase levels,” CouriersPlease spokesperson Jessica Ip said, “with more people relying on credit and buy-now-pay-later services – essentially with money they don’t have – when making online purchases.”