PayPal Australia has upped its forecast for the size of the Australian ecommerce marketplace to $AUD 34.8billion in 2013. PayPal’s estimate for last year (i.e. 2011) was $AUD29.7billion.
The new forecast, which relies on analysis from market researchers, Forrester, is detailed in PayPal’s latest Secure Insight: The Future of Shopping report.
In this year’s report, Andrew Rechtman, PayPal Australia’s director of Product, Strategy and New Business, says that eBay (Paypal’s parent company) commissions a market size evaluation and forecast from Forrester every quarter.
Based on Forrester’s data from the 4th quarter of 2011, Rechtman said that Australian eCommerce spend is currently growing at a rate of 12.4% per annum.
But he said that, if groceries and travel are included, the rate of growth slows to just 7%.
He said that this is “not an indication of a slowing market” but reflects more accurate forecasting models for the $3.2billion Australian online grocery sector.
Grocery is the second biggest area for online spending in Australia, according to PayPal, just behind the travel sector.
Rechtman said that travel accounts for 28% of all online spending in Australia.
On the controversial questions of whether Australians are spending their online dollars here or overseas, Rechtman said that the locals remain on top.
“Australian online retail is driven predominantly by local purchases…” he said.
Acting chief executive at PayPal Australia, and the company’s Director of Merchant Services, Elena Wise, said that the local dominance over foreign operators is 70/30.
‘”… [D]omestic retail accounts for the majority (70%) of online spending in Australia” she said.
PayPal used the opportunity presented by the launch of its latest Secure Insight report to also launch a new card-reader dongle for Apple iPhones.
Called PayPal HereTM , the new dongle enables merchants to swipe and/or read payment cards.
Merchants using PayPal HereTM will be charged a fee per transaction of 2.4% + 30 cents for swipe transactions, and 2.9% + 30cents for manual key-in and scanned transactions.
The dongle has already been trialled in Australia with selected merchants, such as Sydney based clothing retailer – PrettyinPink.
A short video detailing PrettyinPink’s experience with the dongle has been posted on Youtube.
You can check it out at:
PayPal is promising that the new dongle smartphone swipe device will be free for any business owner who registers their interest in the next 6 months at the company’s micro-site.
An Android version is also expected soon although currently the dongle is only available for the Apple iPhone.
For more information on PayPal HereTM go to www.paypal.com.au/here
