PayPal reports some online sales categories up this Xmas
PayPal’s Australian managing director, Andrew Pipolo, has reported that at least some sales categories are doing OK online this Xmas, even if not all.
The first two weeks of Xmas are usually the busiest two weeks of the year, said Pipolo, and the early indicators are that this year is no different in
that respect.
However the current economic conditions appear to have changed what people are buying.
“While electronics, cosmetics and homewares are slightly down on last year, clothing and accessories remain on par.”
He said that books and entertainment, including music and DVD’s, lingerie and gifts are all doing better than last year.
“This may have something to do with price and the feel good factor” he added.
PayPal said it had recently commissioned Sydney based Galaxy Research to survey shoppers about their online shopping behaviour this Xmas.
Conducted during October this year, the survey of 1274 people aged over 18 revealed that getting better value was the most common choice
from four possible reasons for shopping online.
The four choices for why to shop online were:
- - To get better value (68%)
- - To avoid the crowds (65%)
- - To avoid the queues (48%)
- - Better range/more choice (46%)
Other interesting results from the survey included that 46% of online Christmas shoppers expected to use PayPal.
51% of those PayPal users said they expected to use accounts linked to their bank savings accounts, with 32% saying they would use
their credit-card to fund PayPal purchases.
In previous years most PayPal spending would have been at the online marketplaces of PayPal’s parent company, namely eBay.
But in recent years PayPal has become much more widely accepted outside of eBay, and particularly in Australia.
Department store operator, Myer, for example, is one of the latest to have added PayPal as a payment option at its online store.
“They started accepting PayPal in October” said spokeswoman, Kelly Stevens.
In other PayPal news, the Reserve Bank has still not concluded its discussions with the company on allowing retailers to surcharge PayPal transactions.
A recent statement by the RBA’s Payment Systems Board issued on 10th December said that
The Bank is continuing to hold discussions with PayPal regarding merchant restrictions, including its no-surcharge rule.
The Board will consider this matter again at its February meeting.
For more information go to
www.paypal.com.au
www.ebay.com.au
www.myer.com.au
www.rba.gov.au
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