National Australia Bank's (NAB) latest online retail sales index showed Australians spent $13.5 billion in the year to April, up 21 per cent, or $2.3 billion, from $11.2 billion in the previous corresponding 12 months.
"Online retail sales have continued to grow at a vastly stronger rate than the traditional bricks and mortar retail sector," NAB chief economist Alan Oster said.
Online spending in April alone was up 23 per cent from the same month a year ago, compared to only 12 per cent in March - highlighting how poor retail sales were in March as the month usually outperformed April.
Online sales growth was in what Oster called the small sectors: fashion, daily deals, media, and games and toys.
The dominant larger sectors, such as department stores and homewares and appliances, already comprise more than half of all online retail spending. Online sales now represent about six per cent of traditional retail spending, with official figures on overall retail trade in April due on Monday. Online retailing in Britain is already at 13 per cent of all sales and tipped to hit 22 per cent in five years.
There were reasons to be optimistic about retail, with those traditional businesses that had stumped up money to upgrade their online offerings starting to reap benefits and consumer sentiment improving, NAB retail head Tiernan White said.
Other industries such as transport logistics were set also to make money from online retailing but had to be supported by investment, he said.
The biggest online spenders are in the ACT, Northern Territory and Western Australia. Domestic retailers controlled the dominant share, accounting for 72 per cent of online sales in April. Overall retail sales fell 0.4 per cent in March, with household goods and clothing retailers suffering the biggest declines, following gains in January and February.
Source: SMH.
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