Perhaps unexpectedly Australia ranks as one of the highest in countries of a recent survey for online shopping and purchases - not in absolute $$$ but in terms of percentage of the population that feel comfortable, and execute, purchases across the internet - "Australians one of the world's biggest purchasers online".
The survey found that the vast majority of Australian Internet users (87%) had made a purchase over the Internet, compared to the global average of 77 percent and 70 percent regionally.
What was also very interesting to me was that the older segments of the population, 35+, were also very comfortable and active purchases across the internet.
Estimates of this Xmas shopping through the internet for Australia range around US$1 billion, of a total Xmas spend of about US$20 billion, and around 2.3 million people are expected to purchase across the internet for Xmas out of a total population of 20 million people.
Xmas spending represents about 11% of Australia's annual retail sales.
Although internet purchases are only 5% of the total, about 30% of Australian purchasers use the internet for researching before making any purchase.
This boom in internet shopping has helped eBay Australia more than double its gross turnover and it is on track to hit $1 billion in 2006.
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