One of the most sophisticated e-commerce markets, Australia is a smaller but solvable market for online shopping. Dominated by a leading American e-commerce company, Australia still has a little digital space for some local players with an established foothold.
The Australian internet and e-commerce environment is comparable to the United States in terms of sophistication but more akin to Canada in terms of size, or even slightly smaller. With only 22 million internet users, a fraction of the US digital population, the wealth of the Australians, and well-spread habits of using online shopping make it a mature market, with Australians using both computers and mobile devices to shop online for a wide array of goods and services.
Since the Australian market is technologically advanced and solvable, it is no surprise that online competition is fierce. However, given the rather small size of the market, the Australian e-commerce is dominated by a single US platform operating through multiple segments, namely eBay, which is by far the largest e-commerce player in Australia, and surprisingly ahead of the global leader, Amazon. Amazon seems however to be slowly gaining traffic year-over-year.
Nevertheless, some traditional brick-and-mortar retailers, chains of department stores, supermarkets, and specialized retailers, such as JB Hi-Fi and Woolworths are still able to take a share of the market. Some e-commerce pure players, like Kogan.com, also have been able to grab a share of certain market segments for themselves in Australia.
For more information on other world-leading e-commerce actors, check our series of posts on Top E-commerce Sites, and for more information on the country, read our articles on Top Business Resources for Australia.
List of top 10 Australian e-commerce platforms with estimated traffic
To give you more perspective of the state of the market competition in the Australian e-commerce landscape, here are the current top 10 leaders of e-commerce platforms in Australia in 2021 and their estimated monthly traffic from SimilarWeb, as of June 2021.
10. Officeworks
Officeworks is a chain of office supplies stores, providing a range of products of office supplies, including print and copy, computers and technology, furniture, and stationery. Owned by the Wesfarmers conglomerate, Officeworks also proposes its products online through its e-commerce website.
Website: officeworks.com.au – Estimated monthly traffic: 8.3 Million visits
9. Chemist Warehouse
Chemist Warehouse is a chain of retail pharmacies, providing medicine and a wide range of cosmetics, health, and paramedical products. Branding itself as a discount store, Chemist Warehouse operates throughout Australia with a franchising model and also sells online through its e-commerce shop.
Website: chemistwarehouse.com.au – Estimated monthly traffic: 9.45 Million visits
8. Kogan.com
Kogan.com is a specialized e-commerce company offering electronics and consumer appliances, fitness and fashion, tools, and more. Founded in 2006, Kogan.com started by selling televisions online before expanding to other successful categories of products sold through e-commerce. In 2016, Kogan.com acquired the online businesses of former retail chain Dick Smith.
Website: kogan.com – Estimated monthly traffic: 9.85 Million visits
7. Myer
Myer is an Australian retail chain of department stores. It provides a wide range of products across a number of categories including clothing, cosmetics, electrical and electronic home appliances, furniture, food and confectionery, toys, and books in more than 60 stores across the country. Myer also provides its products online through a colorful e-commerce platform.
Website: myer.com.au – Estimated monthly traffic: 10.4 Million visits
6. Big W
Big W is an Australian chain of discount department stores, a division of Woolworths. Operating more than 180 stores across Australia, Big W also sells online its garments and products for women, men, kids, and babies as well as toys, home products, and electronics.
Website: bigw.com.au – Estimated monthly traffic: 12.2 Million visits
5. JB Hi-Fi
Founded in 1974, JB Hi-Fi is a brick-and-mortar retailer of electronics and entertainment consumer goods, including video games, movies, music and software, hardware electronics and electrical home appliances, mobile phones, and more that are also sold on its e-commerce platform. Since 2006, JB Hi-Fi has also expanded in New Zealand.
Website: jbhifi.com.au – Estimated monthly traffic: 13.8 Million visits
4. Coles
Coles is a chain of supermarkets, retail, and consumer services stores. Founded in 1914, Coles operates more than 800 supermarkets throughout Australia. Having developed an online shop, Coles also sells groceries, consumer, and home products to Australian digital customers.
Website: coles.com.au – Estimated monthly traffic: 14.8 Million visits
3. Woolworths
Woolworths is a retail company operating supermarkets among other brands (including Big W) owned by the Woolworths Group, one of the largest companies from Australia. Through its website, Woolworths sells groceries across Australia, as well as various other households, health and beauty, and baby products.
Website: woolworths.com.au – Estimated monthly traffic: 22 Million visits
2. Amazon Australia
Founded in the US in 1994, Amazon started as an online bookstore that later diversified to products including media, electronics, apparel, furniture, food, toys, and jewelry. Having expanded to many countries, Amazon has become the uncontested global leader of e-commerce, except in Australia where it is only in second place. Amazon has developed further into brick-and-mortar retail with the acquisition of Whole Foods Market, as well as publishing, electronics, cloud computing, video streaming, and production.
Website: amazon.com.au – Estimated monthly traffic: 37.3 Million visits
1. eBay Australia
A pioneer of e-commerce, eBay is an American online marketplace that allows people and businesses to sell directly through its online auction platform. Founded in 1995, eBay has expanded to more than 20 countries including Australia, organizing the sale of products ranging from cars and vehicles to electronics and fashion, home and garden to sports and toys, and even business and industrial products.
Website: ebay.com.au – Estimated monthly traffic: 69.5 Million visits
Top e-commerce websites in Australia compared by monthly traffic
The estimated monthly traffic from the top 10 e-commerce platforms previously listed demonstrates the overarching lead of eBay, which stands way above its followers around 70 million monthly visits. The pack of followers is well established in the range of traffic volumes from 8 to 40 million visits per month.
Embed code:
<a href="https://blog.disfold.com/top-e-commerce-sites-australia/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><img src="https://blog.disfold.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/top-10-ecommerce-sites-australia-2021.jpg" alt="Top 10 e-commerce sites in Australia 2021"></a>
Another leading e-commerce player in Australia
Besides these platforms operating through a wide array of products, one brand can also be highlighted for particularly standing out, even though it is not purely in the e-commerce market. As it proposes deals, vouchers, and coupons for other e-commerce players, OzBargain is not an online shop in itself. However, it does participate in the Australian e-commerce landscape by referring to other shops, and with more than 22 million visits per month, it is well worth being remarked here.
Here are the top e-commerce platforms in Australia. Have you ever bought goods or services from them? How was the experience, is the price cheaper and the delivery convenient? Let us know in the comments below!
Hi I’m New to Australia & this site is really helpful to me. Thanks for providing such great information. I would like to connect the person behind this site. Thanks!
Agree with Australia being the “sophisticated” market. E-Commerce is quite a big deal in the country. From fashion to apparel, from footwear to feed & beverages – everything is really organized.