New data from Australian fulfilment provider, eStore Logisitcs has shown that December 2020 was the month of wholesome gift giving, with online orders of health & beauty products, and books, CDs & DVDs up 30% and 33% respectively year-on-year, while home renovation items experienced growth of 96% YoY.
In many categories, the December uplift follows consistent growth across 2020. Home renovation goods saw 138% YoY growth in November and 129% YoY growth in October. This was also the case for books, CDs, and DVDs, which hit peak growth rates of 129% in April and 96% in September, versus 2019. The same goes for health and beauty products, which reached over 200% growth during some months of the year.
Many shoppers also increasingly chose to buy their Christmas food and beverages online, demonstrated by a 67% uplift in orders from 2019. In Australia overall online orders increased by 27% from December 2019.
Victoria was the top performing state for online growth (33%), followed by NSW (28%), QLD (25%), ACT (24%) and SA (23%).
eStore Logistics managing director, Leigh Williams said after a challenging year, it was no surprise that shoppers opted to give wholesome gifts at Christmas.
“In fact, the growth in online orders in 2020 for these products shows that we responded to 2020s challenges by making wellbeing our top priority,” he said.
“In December, no Australian state was in lockdown and all physical stores were operating as normal, however shoppers still opted to buy online. For online orders to still be growing at 27% compared to December 2019 shows us that the habit of online shopping is being cemented in our lives for the long term.”