The phenomenal growth in online sales this year will continue through the pre-Christmas period, reveals a new survey from Toluna, the global community of millions of influencers with subsidiaries in the US, the UK and Australia.
According to the data tracker, 12 per cent of Aussie shoppers plan to finish their Festive Season shopping by the end of this month and 37 per cent are looking to complete the task in November.
Retailers should take note of consumers’ willingness to get started on Christmas shopping now and know that they are already looking for bargains, says Sej Patel, country director, Toluna, Australia and New Zealand.
Close to a third – 30 per cent – intend to do more gift shopping online. A similar percentage – 28 per cent – plan to wait until December to make their purchasing decisions, with only 5 per cent leaving things to the last minute.
The latest retail figures from the Australian Retailers Association (ARA) are also upbeat for the all-important final quarter.
Retail trade was up 5.2 percent in September, compared to a year ago, says Paul Zahra, CEO of the ARA.
“This is a strong trend that we believe is setting us up for a cautiously optimistic Christmas shopping season,” he said.
“Australian retailers make up to two-thirds of their profits during the Christmas period, and with Victoria opening up just on time, and continued government support in the form of tapered JobKeeper and JobSeeker, we expect to see reasonably positive data points during the Christmas period compared to last year.”
In a similar sentiment to Toluna, the ARA is encouraging shoppers to get in early on their shopping lists to avoid any disappointment.