Australian Online Shopping Behaviour: The Sales Growth of Health and Beauty Products
The growth of online shoppers in Australia begun even before the pandemic. The consumer behaviour of the Australian market drastically shifted to online shopping platforms. A wide range of online marketplaces catches the attention of shoppers through delivering a quick one-stop-shop experience. However, the industry that stood out amongst others is the Health and Beauty at an increase of 30% year on year (YOY).
The Health and Beauty industry recorded the highest growth in contrast to all other categories. The beauty and cosmetics field made most of the purchases in the category. Online events such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday are the most popular events Australians attend to purchase products on sale. Due to a large number of Aussies buying cosmetics online, the fashion industry resorted to stocking cosmetics on their shelves.
Health and Beauty Online Purchase Overview
Health and beauty products increase started last 2018. Health and beauty purchases encompass almost 9% of all the online purchases. There two specific kinds of purchases under the health and beauty category. Health covers all the vitamins, supplements, and other pharmaceutical goods sold online. Beauty, on the other hand, includes all kinds of cosmetics products bought mostly by the younger age group. Most health and beauty shoppers prefer BNPL (Buy Now Pay Later) payment methods. Almost 70% of online shopping transactions using BNPL is made of health and beauty shoppers.
The sudden increase in purchases in health and beauty products in Australia drove their e-commerce industry to grow by 21%. Although health and beauty products are only second to activewear purchases, it still contributed to a large amount of profit YOY.
State and Regional Growth of Beauty and Health Products in Australia
Major cities in the country are garnering a lot of profit due to a large amount of health and beauty product purchases. The inner regions in Australia such as New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland made up to 70% of the overall purchase in 2019. Tasmania, on the other hand, grew by at 30% YOY above the nation’s average. Such percentage indicates the preference of consumers seeking wider options not only limited to their own state.
The Top 10 Locations by Volume
| Location | Volume | Growth Percentage |
| Toowoomba | 4350 | 25.3% |
| Point Cook | 3030 | 33.7% |
| MacKay | 4740 | 23.1% |
| Upper Coomera | 4209 | 40.6% |
| Mandurah | 6210 | 14.3% |
| Cranbourne | 3977 | 37.7% |
| Bundaberg | 4670 | 27.2% |
| Liverpool | 2170 | 31.5% |
| Gosford | 2250 | 27.8% |
| Hoppers Crossing | 3029 | -13.1% |
Only one-third to half of the population in Upper Coomera engage in health and beauty online purchases. However, the volume it garners brought the location as one of the top 10 cities that contributes to the overall growth.
Bundaberg also has high purchase frequency. The volume of the population in Bundaberg is one of the aspects that drove the increase in sales. However, household engagements are still below average but projected to substantially increase in the coming years.
In Toowoomba, on the other hand, most of the sales are driven by their huge population making them the topmost location that adds to the overall percentile of health and beauty purchase growth.
Australia Online Shopping Key Trends
Sales events are the most prominent marketing scheme that attracts shoppers. A leaping 30% to 40% increase in purchase volume renders after every event. Black Friday can gain up to 50% of growth while the event with the highest increase is May Mayhem. It garnered more than 50% every event.
Health and beauty products in Australia is projected to grow more YOY. With the rapid increase of businesses banking online to gain leads and visibility, it will be likely for Australians to rely on online shopping than actually buying from a physical store. The range and the freedom online shopping delivers to Aussies helped the economy significantly despite the pandemic.
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