The Retailer Demographics Impacted by COVID-19

On April 9th to 15th, the COVID-19 cases began to double daily – as a result, stockpiling across supermarkets began and the $17.6 billion stimulus package was announced. Power Retail’s benchmarking data found that online shopping experienced a significant increase due to these circumstances.

In February, online spending accounted for 6.6 percent of all retail spend in Australia, up from 5.6 percent in 2019.  Throughout the late weeks of March, we saw a 30 percent swing from shoppers who planned to spend the same online to shoppers who planned to spend less online. As of the first weeks of April, it was expected that spending was set to stay the same.

Throughout these online spends, specific demographics have simultaneously increased and decreased online spend. “The number of consumers decreasing their online spend in the Under 25s category is far more precipitous, with 39% planning to decrease online spending,” said Grant Arnott, the MD of Power Retail. “However, in the age groups, 35 and above the indicators are much more promising, with a steady week-to-week increase in numbers planning to increase their spend online in the next month, coinciding with store closures.”

While the world sits in isolation and waits patiently for the COVID-19 outbreak to end, many things remain uncertain. Many retailers are unsure about what the future holds for retail, in particular online. Madeline George, the Country Manager boohoo Group PLC, ANZ believes that online retail will experience a boom even after the outbreak has ended. “People who don’t usually shop online and have historically preferred that physical experience will now be forced into the e-commerce world,” she said. “And they will soon realise what they can get access to from their couch, and will also (hopefully!) be enlightened by the ease of the experience. I think there’s a silver lining in this; more traditional retailers who haven’t for one reason or another focused on their e-comm offering will now have to adapt pretty fast to survive… something that was likely on the roadmap but never got the attention or resources it deserved, until now.”

Of course, it’s highly unknown what may happen in the future. However, Power Retail’s data is based on Power Retail’s weekly research program, which surveys tens of thousands of Australian shoppers and online retailers each year. This is combined with live data extracted from our cutting-edge Retailer Performance Benchmarking Platform, reflecting daily trends across key e-commerce metrics.

The next Town Hall information session takes place on Thursday, 16th April at 12:00 PM AEST. This session aims to share the essential e-commerce data and insights that the Power Retail team have gathered and analysed over the past fortnight.

This week’s webinar continues our Town Hall series which commenced April 1 and will seek to answer critical questions being asked as we move further into this volatile e-commerce environment.

This session will be accessible for Power Retail members only, including those who are on the current free trial offer and those who join before April 16th. Power Retail members have unlimited access to the full Power Retail E-Commerce Intelligence Platform that’s driving the Let’s Regrow Town Hall Series – that includes the latest Shopper insights, critical data on Australia’s Top 500 Australian Online Retailers and live Retailer Performance Benchmarks.

Power Retail is dedicated to providing critical and live e-commerce retailer benchmarking data and shopper insights for the online retail industry. Click here to find out more about Power Retail E-Commerce Intelligence or here to sign-up for the free weekly Pulse Newsletter for more essential online retail content.