With cost-of-living and interest rate pressures impacting on household budgets in Australia, it could be expected that shoppers would be looking to reduce their e-commerce spend in the year ahead.
However, new research in our latest 2023 Marketplace Consumer Trends Report found that a majority of consumers are set to maintain or even increase their online spending this year and for consumers shopping on the leading global digital marketplace Amazon specifically, this trend was more pronounced with 84 per cent expecting to spend the same amount or more this year.
Marketplace Platform Performance Revealed
Our research of 2000 Australian online shoppers has revealed that 88 per cent of consumers bought from a marketplace during the past year, with 92 per cent intending to in the year ahead.
- eBay was the leading marketplace with 62 per cent of consumers buying from the platform in the past year and an additional 4 per cent expecting to in the year ahead.
- Fifty-two per cent of consumers reported buying from Amazon over the past 12 months, and 59 per cent intend to buy from the platform this year (+12 per cent).
- Catch (+15 per cent) and MyDeal (+36 per cent) are expected to see the largest growth in new shoppers over the coming year.
- Kogan can expect an 11 per cent growth in shoppers this year.
Looking at what products consumers are likely to buy on marketplaces this year, Pattern’s research indicates that:
- Amazon’s key shopper categories include books & e-books and home & kitchen products.
- eBay scored highest in electronics & computer equipment, followed by home & kitchen.
- Catch saw an equal share in clothing, shoes & accessories, toys, kids & baby products, and home & kitchen.
- Kogan consumers are looking for electronics and home & kitchen products on the platform.
Marketplaces Continue to Serve as Product Discovery & Research Hubs
Our research indicates that marketplaces are increasingly becoming product discovery hubs for many online shoppers. Outside of Google, the next most popular channel to research products online is via digital marketplaces, where nearly one-quarter of shoppers use platforms like eBay and Amazon to search for their goods.
Of those shoppers using Amazon, a majority of respondents indicated that they discovered a new brand or product on the platform which resulted in a purchase. Interestingly, a large portion of these consumers also went on to visit the retailer’s D2C website. For brands considering if marketplaces are right for them, it’s noteworthy that 30 per cent of Australians would buy an alternative product on Amazon if the item they were looking for was unavailable.
Given the increased usage and change in consumer behaviour towards digital marketplaces in Australia, local brands need to become far more active on these platforms in the future to meet their customers where they shop.
Synonymous with wide ranges, competitive pricing and fast delivery, Amazon is benefiting from increased customer loyalty with 91 per cent of shoppers indicating they had purchased multiple times from the marketplace over the past year. Our research also indicates that those purchasing at least monthly on average (14 per cent) has doubled since our 2022 edition of the research report.
If you’re looking to grow your brand on Amazon in 2024, get in contact with our team to understand how Pattern can accelerate your marketplace and e-commerce goals now.
