As we have come to expect in recent decades, shoppers arrived in their thousands for the Boxing Day sales – however this year we are seeing a new emerging trend. That trend being that the real growth is online, eCommerce sales.

The Australian National Retailers Association estimates the nation spent $1.9 billion on Boxing Day alone, up 5.5 per cent from last year. The organisation’s figures show that while bricks-and-mortar retailers still claim the bulk of post-Christmas sales, they are enjoying far lower growth than their online competitors.

We must caveat this by saying, the growth is specific to those retailers that have a functioning website. Frighteningly Australia’s largest department store, Myer, watched on as its website crashed on Christmas Day and Boxing Day.  Whilst the David Jones website was coping with heavy traffic of up to 30,000 people browsing at once.

Of the $17.6 billion the retailers’ association expects to be spent between Boxing Day and the middle of January, $13.1 billion will pass through shop tills, up 2.3 per cent on last year. However, domestic online spending is tipped to hit $2.8 billion, up 13.8 per cent, and offshore buying is expected to surge 20.1 per cent, to $1.7 billion.

”It’s a significantly higher growth rate than last year,” association chief executive Margy Osmond said. ”The domestic growth is a reflection of the fact that there’s a much more robust online offering by local retailers.”

Australian Retailers are becoming more sophisticated at targeting their customers and giving them what they want online, however as a nation we still have a long road to travel in terms of best practice eCommerce offerings for end customers.