Strong growth for online spending

Matthew Elmas

10th Jan 2018

Online retail sales recorded another month of strong growth, with an estimated $24 billion spent online in the twelve months to November last year, according to National Australia Bank.

NAB’s online retail sales index for November 2017 has recorded a 4.7 per cent increase in month-on-month spending online and a 14.4 per cent increase in spending compared to November 2016.

That brings online retail to 7.7 per cent of spending at traditional bricks-and-mortar retailers over the twelve months to November 2017, when compared against available ABS data to October.

Compared against ABS data on bricks-and-mortar sales, which grew at 0.5 per cent on a seasonally adjusted basis in October, NAB’s revised October figures have come in at 2 per cent, indicating that online outpaced traditional channels by a factor of four.

Most individual categories accelerated in November, with daily deals coming out on top, growing by 35.1 per cent year-on-year, followed by the much larger homewares and appliances category, which grew at 24.9 per cent year on year.

Food catering (12.9 per cent), games & toys (12.1 per cent) and grocery and liquor (10.2 per cent) all recorded double-digit yoy growth, while department stores and fashion were slower at 9.6 and 5 per cent respectively.

The figures are an encouraging sign for online retailers, indicating that consumers responded to shopping holidays like Cyber Monday and Click Frenzy in November last year.

The ABS is due to release its broader retail spending figures for November tomorrow at 11:30AM.