Australian and New Zealand online consumers prefer shopping closer to home

Coremetrics data cited by Inside Retailing showed interesting results. It was observed that online shoppers in Australia and New Zealand have slowed spending. Moreover, thet prefer shopping online at local sites. And it is not the only observation. In fact the company found online sales conversions in Australia and New Zealand dropped to 2.9 and 2.5 orders per 100 online sessions, respectively, in Q4 2008, down from 4.4 and 4 between April and June 2008. According to Kevin Mackin, general manager at Coremetrics, Australia and New Zealand online consumers are definitely more cautious in their spending at the moment and are looking for bargains closer to home. He admitted that those consumers rely on the net for shopping alternatives even during tough times. And e-commerce becomes more and more popular. It turns to be a vital sales channel for many businesses today. 

However less spending might be connected with time browsing and viewing fewer pages. The Internet is not just a sales channel Down Under. It is observed that many Internet users in Australia go online to research purchases before buying in-store. However, such conclusion was made by Australian Centre for Retail Studies (ACRS) data cited by the Australian Courier-Mail. 

ACRS research analyst Alana Jones said up to one-half of consumers in Australia did some online research before shopping in-store.