Aussie Amazon Prime Shoppers up 63% in less than a year

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Global ecommerce and marketplace specialist Pattern has polled Australian shoppers for the third time to assess their attitudes to Amazon Australia, and understand what’s driving the platform’s sales growth. Spoiler alert, Aussie Amazon Prime Shoppers are up 63% since this time last year.

Amazon’s Prime Day promotional event is taking place across 21st and 22nd June this year… it’s just starting in Australia and in a few hours at midnight will start in the UK! Pattern’s new research shows many more Aussies will be able to bag themselves a bargain in 2021.

24% of those who shop online have a Prime membership, up from 16% nine months ago. At the same time 7% make use of someone else’s account, up from 3% who admitted to doing this in the 2020 poll. The 25-29 age group are the most to be Aussie Amazon Prime Shoppers; 56% of this age group have access to their own or someone else’s account.

The last Prime Day took place on October 13th-14th 2020, and it seems this provided a bump to the current subscription number. 11% of Prime members in May 2021 say they first signed up because of Prime Day. Amazon has certainly mastered the art of hooking customers on Prime, a further 23% of subscribers say they originally signed up for the one-month free trial, but then didn’t cancel.

However even though Prime Day is set offer some big discounts, special offers are not the top reason why shoppers are signing up. Free delivery was the most cited reason (63%) followed by the content and entertainment (58%); special offers and discounts were mentioned by 45% of Aussie Amazon Prime Shoppers.

Pattern’s Amazon Australia Shopper Report 2021 also shows that Amazon has maintained the big jump in customers it achieved during lockdown. 49% of online shoppers report they’ve bought from Amazon Australia in the past 12 months, up from 47% when the research was last run in August 2020. At that time, 30% of those who have bought from Amazon Australia cited lockdown as a reason why they had purchased from the marketplace.

Customers report they are shopping on Amazon.com.au more frequently, and the growth in Prime subscribers will certainly help to foster loyalty to the marketplace as it seeks to make the site as sticky with consumers as it is in other advanced ecommerce markets.

Pattern’s Amazon Australia Shopper Report 2021 highlights consumer attitudes to the marketplace as well as predicts future online shopping behaviour. Findings include:

Amazon.com.au had accelerated growth – In addition to driving new customers to the marketplace, lockdown also created positive sentiment for the business. 32% of online shoppers believe Amazon.com.au helped consumers during lockdown, up from 27% who agreed with that sentiment nine months ago when restrictions were still in place.

Key categories where Amazon will likely take market share – We asked online shoppers which categories they had bought products from on Amazon in the last 12 months, and which they would consider buying on Amazon in the future. They said:

17% had already bought Consumer Electronics on Amazon; 44% would consider buying
15% had already bought Home & Kitchen on Amazon; 47% would consider buying
12% had bought Clothing, Shoes & Accessories on Amazon; 40% would consider buying
7% had already bought Vitamins & Supplements on Amazon; 24% would consider buying

Online customers are up for grabs – 60% of online shoppers expect their non-food shopping habits to continue to change in 2021. 35% say they will buy more online than in previous years, and 20% say that they will buy products online that previously they would buy in physical shops. 24% will buy from different online stores than previously, and 22% intend to buy more from marketplaces.

“We are expecting a bumper Prime Day, no doubt driven by all the new subscribers Amazon has acquired, plus shoppers who will be borrowing their friends’ and family members’ accounts to bag a deal. On a more serious note, retailers and consumer brands in Australia really need to think about whether they can use Amazon as a channel to drive incremental sales. Our findings suggest that its customer proposition – particularly fast and free delivery – increasingly resonates with consumers.”
– Merline McGregor, General Manager for Australia, Pattern

1,000 consumers were polled online in Australia by Stable Research in May 2021. Participation was restricted to those who had shopped online at some point in the previous 12 months.

You can download the full report from the Pattern website.

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