Australian social network shopping surges 700% during Covid

According to PayPal’s 2021 eCommerce Index, Australians are currently doing more than half of their shopping and bill payments online, with many sales generated via social networks

Australians buying products via social network has shot up by more than 700 per cent during COVID-19, prompting thousands of businesses to re-angle their marketing towards Instagram and Facebook campaigns.

According to PayPal’s 2021 eCommerce Index released today, Australians are currently doing more than half of their shopping and bill payments online, with many sales generated via social networks.

A quarter of Australians say they shop on social media, with one in seven revealing they now make a purchase via social media at least once a month.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, those who shopped via social media remained on the platforms but on average spent more: the average ‘social commerce’ consumer now spends an average of $35 a month on items they found on social media, up 700 per cent from the $5 average in 2019.

Broken down by age groups, Millennials are most likely to shop via social media and spend the most, followed by Gen X, Gen Z and finally Baby Boomers.

Peter Cowan, managing director at PayPal Australia, said his team is of the mind that social commerce is poised to become one of the ‘biggest trends we’ll see in online shopping’ over the next few years.

Social media has become an invaluable channel for businesses to tell their brand story, showcase their latest products and services, and connect in an authentic way with their customers, Cowan said.

With almost half of Australian businesses posting on social media daily, it’s a natural evolution that businesses want to offer social audiences easy and immediate paths to purchase for the products and services they are seeing on their feeds, he said.