Australian consumers are shopping online more than ever. At the same time, they are also becoming harder to win and easier to lose.
The Australia Post eCommerce Report 2026 shows that while online spending continues to rise, shoppers are spreading their purchases across more brands. They are comparing options faster and looking more closely at delivery, price and convenience.
For retailers, this signals a clear shift. Growth in e-commerce is no longer just about attracting customers online. It is about keeping them.
With fulfilment no longer a back-end cost to manage, the role of a third-party logistics (3PL) partner becomes more important than ever.
More brands are competing for the same customer
Online retail continues to expand. Australians spent $82.6 billion online in 2025, a 14% increase year-on-year.
But that growth hides a challenge. Shoppers are no longer loyal to just a handful of brands.
The report shows Australian households now purchase from around 16 different retailers each year. With price comparison tools and AI-powered search becoming more common, switching between brands has never been easier.
For retailers, this means attention is harder to hold. Winning a sale is one thing. Winning the next one is becoming the real challenge.
Smaller baskets. More frequent purchases.
Another shift is how Australians buy online.
The average online basket size is now around $96. At the same time, overall spending continues to grow because people are buying more often.
Instead of consolidating purchases, shoppers are making smaller orders when they need them – often triggered by promotions, convenience or immediate demand.
What this behaviour signals
- Consumers are shopping in shorter cycles
- Promotions and targeted offers are more influential
- Every visit to a retailer’s site becomes a new purchase opportunity
Smaller baskets and higher frequency means your pick-and-pack operation needs to be leaner than ever. Same-day dispatch isn’t a nice-to-have, it’s the baseline.
Marketplaces are reshaping the retail landscape
Online marketplaces continue to expand their role in Australian ecommerce.
Australians spent $18.9 billion through marketplaces in 2025, making them a major part of the online retail ecosystem.
Platforms such as Amazon and Temu give shoppers:
- enormous product choice
- competitive pricing
- a convenient one-stop shopping destination
For retailers, marketplaces can deliver valuable exposure and customer acquisition. But they also increase price competition and reduce control over the overall brand experience.
Many businesses are now balancing both approaches – using marketplaces to reach new audiences while investing in their own direct sales channels.
Multichannel selling creates integration debt. Every new channel you add without a centralised fulfilment system creates errors, delays and customer service problems downstream.
AI is starting to influence how people shop
Technology is also beginning to reshape how shoppers research and discover products.
Consumers are increasingly using AI tools to compare options, analyse reviews and narrow down choices before they visit a retailer’s website.
The next step is often referred to as agentic commerce, where AI systems actively assist with parts of the purchasing journey.
Retailers may soon need to optimise product information not just for customers, but for the AI tools that help guide purchasing decisions.
As agentic commerce matures, AI tools will compare retailers on delivery speed and reliability as much as price. The retailers whose operations back up their promises will have a structural advantage.
Delivery has become part of the buying decision
Delivery used to be a back-end operation. Today it is part of the customer experience.
The report shows three in four shoppers say a good delivery experience makes them more likely to shop online.
Customers increasingly expect:
- clear delivery timeframes
- multiple delivery options at checkout
- flexibility such as parcel lockers or collection points
- reliable tracking and communication
When delivery works well, it builds trust. When it doesn’t, it can quickly cost a sale.
For retailers, logistics is now closely tied to conversion and customer satisfaction.
Peak periods expose weak fulfilment faster than anything else. A variable cost model means you scale up for Black Friday without carrying that overhead year-round.
What this means for your fulfilment strategy
Taken together, the trends in this report describe a more demanding operational environment – more orders to process, more channels to manage, harder peaks to absorb, and shoppers who will switch if the delivery experience falls short.
Each of those pressures is manageable in isolation. Together, they are difficult to stay ahead of without the right fulfilment infrastructure behind you.
Coghlan has been helping Australian and New Zealand ecommerce brands navigate exactly this for more than 25 years. With warehouses in Sydney, Melbourne and Auckland, same-day dispatch, a variable cost model that scales with your volume, and direct integrations with Shopify, WooCommerce, Magento and eBay, we handle the operational complexity so you can focus on growth.
Explore Coghlan’s ecommerce fulfilment services or speak with the team to discuss what a fulfilment strategy looks like for your brand in 2026.
