Ecommerce Orders Hit Record Levels in November: SA and NSW Lead Growth

Sydney: Tuesday 22nd December 2020: New data from eStore Logistics, Australia’s largest ecommerce-focused fulfillment provider, shows that South Australia and New South Wales led Australia’s rapid ecommerce growth in November, with ACT and Queensland following close behind. Nationally, ecommerce and omnichannel retailers handled 46 percent more customer orders in November 2020 than 2019, demonstrating that Australian consumers have not lost the taste for ecommerce despite bricks-and-mortar stores reopening.

eStore Logistics’, which is the warehousing and fulfillment provider of choice for the likes of Kogan.com, Temple & Webster, MyDeal.com.au, and Patagonia, shipped over one million items from 500,000 customer orders in November, a new record. NSW, QLD and SA all recorded three months of consecutive year-on-year order growth with shoppers in all three states leaping into Black Friday to make November a boom month:

• Shoppers in South Australia made 57 percent more online purchases than in November 2019

• Shoppers in NSW made 55 percent more online purchases

• Shoppers in ACT made 48 percent more online purchases

• Shoppers in Queensland made 47 percent more online purchases

Victoria (45 percent), Western Australia (34 percent), Tasmania (15 percent) and Northern Territory (15 percent) also recorded year-on-year order growth, albeit at a lower growth rate than previous months.

Top performing retailers

eStore Logistics’ data also reveals that the top performing retailers in November were:

• Home and renovation: Shoppers made 138 percent more orders in November 2020 from home and renovation retailers, compared to November 2019

• Food, beverages and alcohol: Shoppers made 92 percent more orders in November 2020 from food, beverage and alcohol retailers, compared to November 2019

• Department stores: Shoppers made 92 percent more orders in November 2020 from department stores, compared to November 2019

Leigh Williams, Managing Director, eStore Logistics, said: “Before COVID-19, Australian ecommerce was growing at 20 percent year-on-year, but the introduction of lockdown restrictions really poured on rocket fuel. During this time, millions of new customers were introduced to the benefits of ecommerce and while it’s natural that some of those have returned to visiting their favourite stores, it’s clear that online retail is not going away.

“While Black Friday was a big factor in making November our biggest ever month on record, you only have to look at the consistent year-on-year order growth in New South Wales, Queensland and South Australia, which have been out of lockdown since August, to see that shoppers aren’t going to stop buying things online. Our distribution centres are buzzing and our customers are struggling to replace stock quick enough – this all bodes well for ecommerce retailers in 2021.”