AMAZON AUSTRALIA

REPORT 2020
How lockdown has altered consumers’
shopping habits and perceptions of
Amazon in Australia
September 2020
AMAZON AU: CONTENT & METHODOLOGY

Executive Summary P3
1,003 Australians were polled online in July
Attitudes To Amazon P5 and August 2020 by Stable Research for this
What Australian consumers think about Amazon, and how report. We restricted the survey to those who
their views have changed in the past year. had shopped online in the past 12 months.
Amazon Buyer Behaviour P11
Outlining the increase in shoppers buying from Amazon,
There was an even split of male to female
what they are buying and their reasons for doing so. respondents, aged 18 and over from a
representative range of age groups, with 74%
Response To Lockdown P20 living in major Metro areas.
How the closure of physical stores and limits of shoppers’
movements has changed their shopping behaviour, and For more information on how we could support
their predictions for how this will continue through 2020.
your Amazon strategy please contact us at
Recommendations P24 au@pattern.com
About Pattern P25

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AMAZON AU: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
In 2019 we conducted our first poll on attitudes to Amazon in
Australia. A year later, and we’ve re-run the research in July and
August 2020, during a pandemic when stores across Australia
have temporarily closed, and consumers have been forced to
change their buying behaviour.
We discussed whether it was appropriate to conduct this
research again, to determine how attitudes to Amazon have
changed in the past year.
Predicting that the changes to behaviour that have been
witnessed are here to stay for the rest of the year, and likely
longer, we decided that it was more important than ever to
understand what Australian shoppers think about Amazon.
We were also able to ask questions specifically about how
COVID-19 and lockdown has changed their shopping habits in
general, and will likely impact them for the rest of 2020.
The results support web traffic data, with Amazon’s Australian
site seeing a rise in monthly visits of 49.5% between February
and July 2020, according to data from SimilarWeb.
Australian offer becomes more compelling
One of the biggest year-on-year changes we have seen is the
percentage of people shopping from the Australian site rather
than Amazon’s American .com site. Last year many shoppers
gave feedback that they found the US site had a better product
selection and prices than the local Australian version.
In 2019, more Australians had bought from the US version of
Amazon than the Australian one in the preceding 12 months
(35% compared to 30% for the Australian instance). Just over a
year later, 47% of Australians report having made a purchase
from Amazon.com.au – a rise of more than 50% - and just 13%
are now buying from the US site.
While there has only been a slight increase in the percentage
of shoppers who have visited Amazon.com.au compared to
2019, up from 80% to 83%, many more are now buying.
Lockdown has likely had an impact on how the marketplace is
converting browsers to buyers; 30% of Amazon AU shoppers
gave it as a reason why they had purchased from the site. ►
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AMAZON AU: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
In addition, 27% of the online shoppers we surveyed said that
Amazon has helped consumers during lockdown.
Part of the reason for this could be that it was providing a wide
selection of products when other channels were unavailable to
shoppers. 64% said it provides a wide variety of products.
Prime numbers
The positive sentiment towards Amazon Prime – the
marketplace’s subscription scheme which it uses to increase
purchase frequency and lifetime customer value – is a leading
indicator that Amazon is on an upward trajectory in Australia.
Some 19% of the online shoppers in our survey say they have
access to a Prime subscription, and a further 14% are very or
quite likely to become a Prime subscriber in the next year.
18% of those who bought from Amazon AU said they did so
because of their Prime subscription, up from 11% in 2019.
Whatever their reason for signing up, once they subscribe to
Prime it then positively influences them to buy from the site.
Lockdown leaves much up for grabs
65% of online shoppers say they have bought a little or lot
more online so far during 2020 than in 2019. The results of
the questions we asked about how lockdown has changed
shoppers’ behaviour are particularly interesting:
• 53% of shoppers say they have bought more online as a
result of lockdown;
• 27% have bought from different online retailers than they
normally would as a result of lockdown.
Further to this, many shoppers expect lockdown to continue
changing their shopping habits for the rest of the year:
• 46% expect to continue buying more online;
• 11% expect to buy even more from Amazon;
• 22% will buy from different online retailers than normal.
Buyer behaviour has undoubtedly changed for the longer term,
and accelerated the shift in sales from offline to online.
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ATTITUDES TO
AMAZON.COM.AU

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AMAZON AU: ATTITUDES

Have you visited Amazon.com.au for any of these reasons in the past
12 months, whether you made a purchase or not? The percentage of
Australian online
I have never visited the site 17% shoppers who have
never visited Amazon’s
AU site has nudged down
I have visited the site to look for products I from 20% in 2019 to
37%
can't find in Australian stores
17% in 2020. We can
see that the sharp
I have visited the site to look for products I
can't find elsewhere online
34% increase in buyers from
the site has come from
I have visited the site to look for product
those who were already
39% browsing, rather than
information, including product reviews
from a volume of
I have visited the site to check the prices of shoppers coming to the
60%
products site for the first time in
the past 12 months.
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 AMAZON AU: ATTITUDES

Whether you have purchased from Amazon.com.au or not, which of 27% of shoppers
these statements did you agree with? surveyed agreed that
Amazon had helped
Agreed it provides value for money 39%
consumers during
lockdown. This mirrors
Agreed it provides a wide variety of products 64%
the positive sentiment
towards the
Agreed it is easy to buy from 46%
marketplace seen in
Agreed it allows you to buy a variety of products on other countries while
39%
one order lockdown measures
have been in place.
Agreed it offers quick delivery 34% Its combination of
product selection,
Agreed it helped consumers during lockdown 27% pricing and delivery has
been appreciated by
None of the above 15% consumers.
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AMAZON AU: ATTITUDES

The statistics for Prime How likely are you to become a Prime subscriber in the next 12 months?
membership show that
many of those who were
interested in joining Prime 16%
17%
last year have now done so. Already a member
19% of all respondents
Already make use of someone
have access to a Prime 3%
else's account
subscription and a further
Will definitely sign up 4%
14% are positive towards
signing-up in the next year. Will probably sign up
Only 17% of shoppers were 21% 10%
certain that they would not Don’t know
sign up to Prime. This is a
leading indicator that Will probably not sign up
Amazon will continue to
grow in the market. Will definitely not sign up
28%

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 AMAZON AU: ATTITUDES

What were the reasons consumers signed up for Amazon Prime?

Free delivery and the
entertainment included
65% with Prime Video were
Free delivery
37% equally as important as
the main reason for
38% signing up to Prime.
Special offers/discounts of products purchased
12% However, 65% cited free
delivery as one of the
The content and entertainment included
62% reasons they signed up,
37% showing that a high
proportion of Prime
Signed up for Prime Day and didn't cancel
9% subscribers intend to
2%
make purchases, even if
One of the reasons their primary reason for
26% signing-up is to access
Signed up for the one month trial and didn't cancel The main reason
10%
entertainment.
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AMAZON AU: ATTITUDES

What do you think of retailers or brands who choose to sell on Amazon? Once again,
the results to
this question
They are giving me more choice about how I buy their products 38%
show that
consumers
They are allowing me to purchase their products for less cost
on Amazon than from a store or their own website
22% are broadly
positive in
They are allowing me to purchase their products more
30%
their
conveniently on Amazon than from a store or their own website sentiment
towards
They are confusing me about how best to buy their products 12% brands who
choose to
They are damaging my perception of them by selling on sell via the
8%
Amazon
marketplace.
I don’t care whether they sell on Amazon or not 45%

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AMAZON.COM.AU
BUYER BEHAVIOUR

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 AMAZON AU: BUYER BEHAVIOUR

How many Australian online shoppers bought from an Amazon website in Amazon’s
the past 12 months? Australian site
has become the
Yes - from Amazon.com.au 47%
primary site for
shoppers in the
past 12 months.
Yes - from Amazon.com (the US site) 13%
In 2019, 30% of
online shoppers
said they had
Yes - from other Amazon sites (such as Amazon.co.uk) 6%
purchased from
the AU site, while
Yes - from Amazon but I don't know which country site it was
35% were still
3%
buying from the
US site.
No - have not purchased from Amazon site 47%

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AMAZON AU: BUYER BEHAVIOUR

For those who bought from Amazon.com.au in the past 12 months,

As well as a greater number of how often did they purchase from the site?
shoppers buying from Amazon AU,
shoppers are buying more
Once and not again 13%
frequently than they did a year
ago. In 2020, only 13% reported
making a single purchase in the Between 2-4 times 60%
past year, down from 18% in 2019.
The percentage of shoppers
buying from Amazon multiple Between 5-12 times 19%
times in the past year has
increased from 74% in 2019, to
86% in 2020. In particular, the More than 12 times 7%
percentage of those buying more
than 12 times in a year has
doubled from 3% to 7%. Can't recall 1%

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AMAZON AU: BUYER BEHAVIOUR

For those who have purchased from Amazon.com.au in the past 12

months, why did they purchase? The main two changes in
responses to this
The product was cheaper than from other retailers 62% question between 2019
and 2020 were the
The product was not available from other retailers 51% increase in those buying
as the product was not
They bought from Amazon during lockdown while
stores were closed
30% available from other
retailers (up from 44% to
The product could be delivered more quickly than by
30% 51%), and those buying
other retailers
as they have a Prime
Amazon is easier to buy from than other retailers 27% subscription (up from
11% to 18%).
Amazon is their preferred retailer 11% We can also see that
lockdown has driven
They have an Amazon Prime subscription 18%
shoppers to Amazon; a
massive 30% cited this
Other reason 3%
as a reason.
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AMAZON AU: BUYER BEHAVIOUR

For those who purchased from Amazon.com.au in the past 12 months,

More shoppers have made who did they purchase from?
a purchase from a seller
whose name they don’t
Made a purchase directly from
recognise (35% up from Amazon
72%
26% a year ago). This is
likely as shoppers have
turned to Amazon to access Made a purchase from a seller
whose name they recognised (ie 20%
product they were unable to retailer/brand)
buy elsewhere during
lockdown, and have
become more confident to Made a purchase from a seller
35%
whose name they didn't recognise
buy from third-party sellers.
The percentage who said
they’d bought directly from Couldn't remember or didn’t know
Amazon dropped slightly 11%
who they have purchased from
from 76% to 72%.
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AMAZON AU: BUYER BEHAVIOUR

For those who visited Amazon.com.au and did not make a purchase,
what was the reason? More consumers
would buy from
Could not find the product they wanted 24% Amazon if the
products they wanted
Found the product they wanted but it was not in stock
were available and in
12%
stock. The only
substantial change in
Found the product they wanted but did not like the seller 9%
answer in this year’s
results was for those
Found the product they wanted but did not like the price 41% who said they did not
purchase from
Found the product they wanted but did not like the Amazon due to the
15%
delivery time frame
delivery timeframe
Found the product they wanted but did not like the
31%
(up from 10% to 15%)
delivery price/could not get free delivery likely due to extended
delivery times during
Gave another reason 16%
lockdown.
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AMAZON AU: BUYER BEHAVIOUR

For those who have purchased from Amazon.com.au in the past 12

months, which categories have they purchased? It’s clear that Amazon is
making headway in a
Books & ebooks 47% wider variety of product
Electronics & computer equipment 44% groups. This backs up
Toys, kids and baby 20% the feeling among
Sport, fitness & outdoor 19%
shoppers that it has a
wide product selection.
Home & kitchen 30%
The closure of non-
Home improvement 13% essential stores will
Automotive parts & accessories 8% likely have had a
Luggage & travel 8% positive impact on sales
Food & pantry
in categories such as
11%
Home & Kitchen, Sport,
Pet food & supplies 9%
Fitness & Outdoor and
Vitamins & supplements 13% Clothes, Shoes &
Skincare & make-up 13% Accessories.
Clothes, shoes & accessories 22%
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AMAZON AU: BUYER BEHAVIOUR

Unsurprisingly, free delivery For those who visited Amazon.com.au in the past 12 months and did not
make a purchase, what would have convinced them to buy?
and cheaper prices remain
the top options that could
Free delivery 68%
convert browsers to first-
time buyers on Amazon.
This year we also gave Cheaper prices than available elsewhere 62%
respondents the option to
choose ‘Nothing would If the product was not available elsewhere 26%
convince me’ as a
response. Only 8% chose
this option suggesting that If they had free Prime subscription 14%
there is only a relatively
small percentage of the Gave other reasons 9%
population who are not at
all receptive to purchase
Nothing would convince them 8%
from the marketplace.
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 AMAZON AU: BUYER BEHAVIOUR

For those who have yet to buy, which product categories would they
We can see that even consider buying from Amazon.com.au in the future?
among those who have
yet to make a Books & ebooks 59%
purchase, there are a Electronics & computer equipment 57%
range of categories Toys, kids and baby 42%
where Amazon is likely 52%
Sport, fitness & outdoor
to be considered for
Home & kitchen 61%
future purchases.
The products most Home improvement 40%
likely to tempt new Automotive parts & accessories 31%
customers to buy are Luggage & travel 48%
very similar to those
Food & pantry 26%
that existing customers
Pet food & supplies 29%
have reported
purchasing from the Vitamins & supplements 32%
site in the past year. Skincare & make-up 35%
Clothes, shoes & accessories 54%
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RESPONSE TO
LOCKDOWN

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 AMAZON AU: RESPONSE TO LOCKDOWN

How have your online and store shopping habits been impacted by
COVID-19? The percentage of
shoppers visiting stores
I have shopped less often as a result of COVID-19 30% less closely mirrors those
who say they are buying
I am spending less money on shopping as a result of
COVID-19
31% more online.
I am visiting physical stores less often as a result of
Lockdown has led
52% shoppers to experiment
COVID-19
with who they are buying
I am buying less online as a result of COVID-19 7%
from online too, with 10%
I am buying more online as a result of COVID-19 53% citing COVID-19 as the
reason they have bought
I am buying from Amazon.com.au as a result of
COVID-19
10% from Amazon, and 27%
I am buying from different physical stores as a result
saying it had led them to
6% buy from different online
of COVID-19
I am buying from different online retailers as a result retailers than they
27%
of COVID-19 normally would.
Other 7%

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AMAZON AU: RESPONSE TO LOCKDOWN

How do you expect COVID-19 to impact your shopping habits for the
Nearly half of shoppers
rest of 2020?
expect to continue to visit
stores less until the end of I will shop less often 35%
the year and, likely as a
direct result, 46% expect to I will spend less money on shopping 33%
buy more online.
While online retailers and I will visit physical stores less 45%
brands should be
concerned about the 33% I will buy less online 11%
who expect to spend less,
I will buy more online 46%
there is an opportunity to
acquire new customers I will buy more from Amazon.com.au 11%
too; 11% expect to buy
more from Amazon and I will buy from different physical stores than normal 8%
22% to buy from different
online stores than normal. I will buy from different online stores than normal 22%

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AMAZON AU: RESPONSE TO LOCKDOWN

How much have you purchased online in 2020 compared to 2019?

A greater number of
consumers have said
they have purchased
I have bought a lot more online this year 33% more online this year
than said they had
bought more online due
I have bought a little more online this year 32% to lockdown. Not all of
the increase in online
sales will be due to
I have bought about the same online this year 25% COVID-19 – it was a clear
trend anyway – but
lockdown has increased
I have bought a little less online this year 5% the migration of sales
online and some of this
change to behaviour will
I have bought a lot less online this year 4% be permanent.

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AMAZON AU: RECOMMENDATIONS

All brands selling online need to review their customer acquisition strategies: Lockdown is causing Aussie shoppers to
consider different online retailers and channels – including Amazon – than they have bought from in the past. As a result, brands
have the opportunity to acquire new customers and turn them into repeat purchasers during 2020. This many include investing in
Amazon advertising to acquire new customers who are using that channel.
Brands should also review their channel strategy and channel mix: Shoppers’ feedback on how their habits have changed
backs up the market data on online sales rising substantially during 2020. Even with stores open again, buyer behaviour has been
altered for the longer term. Brands should analyse where their sales are now coming from, and whether they have the right
channels and partners in place to service this changed demand.
Investigate whether Amazon could deliver incremental sales: The upward trend of Aussie shoppers purchasing from
Amazon has been accelerated by lockdown, which has seen shoppers turn to the marketplace for items that they couldn’t
purchase elsewhere. Brands who have never investigated Amazon as a route to market should analyse whether it could deliver
incremental sales, and brands who considered it more than a year ago should look again.
If your products are sold on Amazon ensure they are eligible for free delivery: All products fulfilled by Amazon are eligible
for free delivery to Amazon Prime subscribers. With the number of Prime subscribers increasing – 19% of the online shoppers
surveyed have access to a Prime subscription and a further 14% expect to sign up in the next year - being Prime eligible should
improve your conversion rate. Amazon’s recent announcement of a deal with Australian department store chain Myer to act as
click-&-collect hubs for Amazon orders will bring further choice and flexibility to how customers receive their orders.

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ABOUT PATTERN
Pattern is the premier ecommerce partner to global consumer brands. With employees in 18
global locations, Pattern’s ecommerce expertise and data-driven insights help brands to
deliver profitable growth on their ecommerce sites and marketplaces such as Amazon, eBay,
Tmall and JD.com.

One of the largest Amazon sellers in the world, we act as the authorised seller partner for
more than 70 brands globally; buying their stock to sell on the marketplace and taking care
of every aspect of their Amazon presence. Product listings, marketing, customer service and
logistics are all taken care of when a brand engages with us.

In addition, our consulting arm can support the development of your marketplace strategy,
and act as your Amazon agency if you have a direct relationship with Amazon.

For more information on how Pattern could support your brand in Australia see our website
at pattern.com/au or contact us as au@pattern.com.

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