Australians order more, spend less online

Shoppers in Australia make more purchases per web session than people in most other countries around the world, according to new research.

Shoppers in Australia make more purchases per web session than people in most other countries around the world, according to new research. Digital market firm Coremetrics analysed buyer habits by across 72 million visits to e-commerce sites by web browsers around the world.

They found that Australian web users make an average 4.4 purchases for every 100 web sessions, way ahead of the global average of 2.96 purchases and the 3.3 and 1.7 average purchases by web users in the US and Britain respectively.

But we also love a bargain – while we make more purchases, the average $US55 Australians spend per order is well behind the $US70 plus spent in Britain and US, and positively meager compared to the average $US111 spent by the average Singaporian online shopper.

Kevin Mackin, general manager for Coremetrics ANZ, offers more insight into the surprising results. “The significantly higher conversion rate of Aussies and Kiwis suggests consumers in the region are much more confident and comfortable with buying online than previously thought.

“The US and UK are thought to be the most tech-savvy, but the conversion rates suggest otherwise when it comes to e-commerce,” he says.

Australians also take longer to make a purchasing decision during each visit to an e-commerce site. We spend an average 7.5 minutes per site visit, similar to the global average, but tend to click on the “buy now” button a minute or two later than British and US consumers.

This means websites that are able to hold browsers’ attention for longer are more likely to get a sale, Mackin says. “There’s strong reason to believe that this indicates a more considered online buying approach,” he says, “an excellent reason to enhance the ‘stickiness’ of your site.”

(See the table below.)

Source: Coremetrics

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