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Many Australian households found themselves sitting on a cash windfall last year, with some making more than $10,000 selling unwanted items online, according to a new report from eBay.
As many people tightened the purse strings or used the extra time at home during the pandemic to have a clear-out, about one in five Aussies – 22 per cent – began selling pre-owned items online.
More than half – 52 per cent – made an average of $4292 selling their preloved goods online, but one in 10 Australians cashed in – making more than $10,000 selling pre-owned items online, the online retailer found.
The e-commerce giant looked at how shopping habits changed during the pandemic in its ‘Lockdown: One Year On’ report, a survey of more than 2100 Australians in early 2021.
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The report found the nation was quick to act on hygiene and safety at the height of the pandemic, with sales of face masks up more than 700,000 per cent and sales of handwash rising by 4000 per cent in March 2020 alone.
More people got busy at home and picked up new and old hobbies, with sewing surprisingly making a comeback. Sewing sales increased by 654 per cent in August 2020, becoming the fastest growing hobby during winter.
Aussies have spent more than $59 million on books since the lockdown began. As we started taking stock of our savings, sales of Scott Pape’s money book The Barefoot Investor went up 152 per cent. Meanwhile, some Aussies had other things on their minds with sales of erotic fiction such as the Fifty Shades of Grey series going up fivefold in sales in May 2020.
Lego sales went through the roof with three sets of Lego sold every minute on eBay.
People also turned to being out in nature when they could, with fishing gear sales up 1588 per cent in July 2020.
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eBay Australia managing director Tim MacKinnon said he expects the trend of online shopping to continue after an extra million shoppers turned to shopping on eBay since the pandemic begun.
“We have witnessed the rapid acceleration of e-commerce first hand,” he said.
“It’s hard to believe it’s been a year since the COVID-19 pandemic sent parts of Australia into lockdown. Nobody knew how consumers would respond when we first entered this crisis but one year on we’ve seen a rapid acceleration in e-commerce, which is a trend that’s here to stay.”
Mr MacKinnon added they’ve seen “huge support” for homegrown local businesses, of which there are 40,000 on eBay. “Searches on eBay for Australian-made items rose by more than 430 per cent in July,” he said.
National Retail Association CEO Dominique Lamb agreed that online shopping played a huge part in 2020 as Aussies navigated through a pandemic.
“The past 12 months have been an incredibly volatile period for Australian retail with state lockdowns, panic buying and higher levels of discretionary spending,” Ms Lamb said.
“While we saw an uptick in retail spend over the holiday period, online shopping has played a bigger part in this role than ever before.”
Australia Post executive general manager of business, government and international Gary Starr said online deliveries were off to a strong start, with January – typically a quiet month after the Christmas rush – up 44 per cent year on year.
“It is clear online remains a critical channel for shoppers,” Mr Starr said.
“Online shopper engagement remains high, and while we don’t expect to see the same extreme peaks we saw during 2020, online shopping participation is expected to stabilise well above pre-COVID levels.”
Futurist Chris Riddell said shopping had undergone the fastest and most significant transformation in more than 100 years in the past 12 months, in what he called a “reinvention of retail”.
“This is without doubt the most extraordinary time to be a consumer. Over the next five years alone we will experience more innovation than we’ve seen in the last 50 years,” he said.
“Much of what we are seeing today is just the tip of the iceberg for the new normal where online platforms, like marketplaces, integrate themselves into this new world of intelligent experiences, where data will be utilised to make sure the experiences are personalised at every single moment, from computers as CEOs to digital storefronts and virtual e-commerce dating assistants.
“Yes, the future will be different. But the future will also be amazing.”
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