{"id":39266,"date":"2023-10-20T15:01:41","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:01:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/value-for-money-driving-online-shopping-free-shipping-helps-australia-post-survey-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T15:01:41","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:01:41","slug":"value-for-money-driving-online-shopping-free-shipping-helps-australia-post-survey-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/value-for-money-driving-online-shopping-free-shipping-helps-australia-post-survey-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"Value for money driving online shopping, free shipping helps: Australia Post survey &#8211; StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"td-post-featured-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"445\" height=\"352\" itemprop=\"image\" class=\"entry-thumb\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/l_auspost-445.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"l_auspost-445\"\/><\/div>\n<p>Value for money is the number one driver for online shoppers,  according to a survey of 10,000 Australians conducted by Australia Post.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Paul Fanthorpe, Australia Post\u2019s general manager of customer research  and insights, presented findings from the research during a session at  the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.smartcompany.com.au\/marketing\/796-online-sales\/47757-groupon-australia-chief-opens-up-warts-and-all-about-the-deals-sites.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Online Retail Conference and eCommerce Expo in Sydney on Thursday<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Australia Post asked consumers to describe how they shop and what  they liked, how much they liked to spend, attitudes to delivery and  returns, and their favourite websites, in what Fanthorpe said is the  largest online shopping survey in the country.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The survey found apparel is the fastest growing online shopping  category in Australia, as well as being the largest online category,  with $4.8 billion spent annually in Australia.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>It also found Australia\u2019s top four online shopping websites are Target, Myer, Big W and Asos.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Fanthorpe said value for money, which included price and  consideration of time, came out as the number one driver for online  shoppers, followed by ease of use and convenience.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cValue for money is the overwhelming aspect,\u201d he told the audience.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The research found the top reasons why Australians shop online  include cheaper prices and free shipping, with 26% of shoppers saying  the price they pay online is cheaper and 24% saying free shipping is why  they shop online.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Fanthorpe told <em>SmartCompany<\/em> small online businesses should  consider offering free shipping and a choice of delivery, because  express delivery isn\u2019t always necessary.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMost people don\u2019t want it quickly,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFree shipping has been increasingly prevalent in the past few years, some retailers are doing it well.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Fanthorpe says it is also worth retailers offering free returns, even if Australians are not big on it.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cForty per cent of Australians profess to have never returned anything online,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>But he encourages smaller online retailers not to underestimate the value of returns because others were not doing it.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFree delivery and free returns instantly says confidence about the  product, instantly says confidence about the brand,\u201d Fanthorpe says.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong>Fanthorpe\u2019s top tips for retailers are:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Free shipping: Offer free shipping if you can afford it<\/li>\n<li>Need for speed: people not necessarily prepared to play for express,  but want it as an option of it. Most customers don\u2019t want weekend  delivery.<\/li>\n<li>Returns: offer a returns policy if you can.<\/li>\n<li>Value add: Consider offering content such as how-to guides<\/li>\n<li>Tell your customers what\u2019s new<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><em>SmartCompany attended the Online Retail Conference as a guest of Australia Post.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><br \/>This article was originally published on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.smartcompany.com.au\/growth\/economy\/47767-value-for-money-driving-online-shopping-free-shipping-helps-australia-post-survey.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">SmartCompany<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Value for money is the number one driver for online shoppers, according to a survey of 10,000 Australians conducted by<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61399,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39266"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39266"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39266\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61399"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}