The Clickstarter Kit: eCommerce the Aussie Way

Author – Devavratha Shetty N

Somewhere between running into shopping centres just before the closing time and sitting in your pajamas wherever you please and shopping endlessly, we all grew up.

There was once a time where you had to tell your peers and friend circle if you were to sell anything and wait for each of them to get back to you with prospective buyers. Gone are those days with the arrival of the era of the act of buying or selling goods and services over the internet. Well, this act is called E-commerce or Electronic Commerce.

What’s all the fuss about eCommerce and Where is the eCommerce train heading in Australia?

I’m here to spill the tea or rather the whole kettle.

If you’re looking to start or even expand your business over the internet, then hold on to this guide.

If you’re the kind who wants to test the waters before diving in, then this is HOW eCOMMERCE WORKS

If You’re A Seller

If this sounds like just an option to choose from, I’d like to burst your bubble. It’s not as easy as it sounds. Each platform has its own perks and downsides.

*Social Media platforms give you a really good presence depending on how active and creative you are online-wise.

*Online Marketplaces do display your products on their platform, although the branding part is close to zero. The customer data and sales data, with which you can improvise or rectify your product, is not shared.

*With general eCommerce websites, you need to manage your SEO or every other form of marketing to drive traffic and thereby sales. The only place where you’d actually love traffic.

3. Once the listing is done, you’d have to patiently wait for the magical words, a notification that says, “You Have Received An Order” or something along those lines. Before you celebrate, the real-time work begins now.

Customers would’ve made the purchase through credit cards or digital wallets.

4. Once the order has been placed, you need to prepare for packaging and shipping. You can partner with a shipping company to execute the shipping process.
5. Do follow up with the customers for feedback and reviews. That way a bond between you and the customer will ensure loyalty as well as allow you to improvise on the area where there is room for evolving.

This, my dear folks, is how you can start with an eCommerce business right away.

Oh, and this is just one way of earning through an online platform, which is called, simply, sales. 

If you’re looking for a steady yet consistent income, you can use the Subscription model. If you’re an Influencer, you can promote other branded products via your profile, although this requires you to have a really strong online presence and a ton of followers.

OzCommerce

Now does eCommerce have a chance in Australia?

Chance? It’s raging! Australia is the perfect market for eCommerce with 98% of its population banked. That’s the highest in the Asia-Pacific region.

Stats time

Total eCommerce volume in Australia for 2024: US$89.4billion

The retail eCommerce volume alone constitutes to US$46.2billion 

If you’ve already sourced a product, narrowed down your target audience and are thinking to yourself, “Tell me where do I put up my products already?” then ta-da! Let me suggest a few of the best online marketplaces in Australia.

1. Catch: 25,000 sales per day.
2. Amazon Australia: Access to 300 million global customers.
3. eBay: Attracts 12 million unique visitors each month. 
4. MyDeal: Australia’s homemade marketplace.
5. Temu: In the first half of 2024, Temu’s sales totaled $20 billion.

Well, before you rush to list your products, take a deep breath and contemplate, “What kinda audience are you targeting?”-Teens? Adults? Kids? Homemakers? Working individuals? Retirees?

If you’re a money-man/woman, looking to invest fast and get returns faster, then let me go a step ahead and give you stats of Who spends the most and How much?

• Millennials take the cup when it comes to spending. They constituted US$14.8 billion e-commerce purchases in 2023. So, looking to make some mah-ney? Find out what millennials need! These mates and sheilas split spending evenly, 23% on both, home & garden and liquor.
• Gen X, born between 1965 and 1980, constitute US$11.7 billion and contribute 27% of their spending on home and garden purchases. 
• Baby Boomers, born from 1946 to 1964, accounted for US$8.3 billion in online purchases. These folks spend 29% of their income on the home and garden category as well.
• The youngest of them all, the Gen Z (1997-2012), constituted US$7.1 billion in 2023. 23% of Gen Z spending is dedicated to fashion only. 

If you’re still sceptical about entering the eCommerce platform, well, 1 in 7 households in Australia makes online purchases every week! What are you waiting for? Gear up for an online transformation!
Enough with deets of the present! For potential clickprenuers, that’s a made-up word, looking to stay for the long-run in the eCommerce platform, let’s get some insights of the Future of eCommerce in Australia.

Back To The Future

Let’s start the topic on a positive numerical note: 

Forecasted e-commerce volume in Australia for 2027: US$107 billion.

2025 was set to be the transformative year for eCommerce businesses and 2025 has not disappointed. Although Temu is seeing rapid growth, the product quality is, well, there are a few quality concerns. If Temu fixes that, there’s no stopping! The competition is getting stronger and tighter, and with competition comes innovation. And here comes the birth of innovation-

Slowly but steadily, Amazon is set to launch Amazon Haul, a pocket-friendly online store directly targeting price sensitive shoppers. Haul is expected to revolutionise the Australian online shopping market. With Amazon’s already established global reputation and its well known eCommerce dominance, competitors? “ Get ready to rumble.”

Another competitor that has been hailed as the leading eCommerce platform is Shopify. It’s, uh, all-in-one solution that handles Website creation, Product listing and inventory, Payment processing, Shipping and fulfillment, Marketing tools, SEO and analytics. See? I meant it when I said all-in-one!

Why is it popular? Because..

1. Ease of Use
2. Wide range of FREE and PAID templates
3. 8000+ apps that helps add features such as reviews, upsells and so on
4. Built-in Shopify payments or integration with third party payment gateways
5. Flexible for both startups and large enterprises
6. 24/7 customer support

Now, what kinda eCommerce is dominating?

Pixel to Purchase: AI

AI, on the other hand, is geared up or rather is already on the track, eyeing the Cup of the future! A few visionary eCommerce platforms use AI-driven tools and personalised content creation to engage with customers.

So, how does AI help if you’d want to employ it in your online business?

1. When a potential buyer lands on your online store, an AI chatbot welcomes the customer with quirky welcome messages. And if the customer has already bought a thing or two from you previously, AI tools automatically suggest them with trending latest items based on their past purchases. 
2. The prices of the products are already adjusted depending on their shopping behaviour. 
3. The prices can also be adjusted to dynamic pricing based on demand, competition and season.
4. Customer POV- You can upload an image of an item and allow AI to detect similar items on various eCommerce platforms.
5. AI can also filter product recommendation based on demography, behaviour and preferences.

SORA, another AI-powered text-to-video AI model, can produce animated images and remix existing videos to your wish and will. The entire arena of product marketing is going to change with SORA. It supports cinematic, animated and documentary aesthetics.

ClickTok Commerce: Social Commerce

TikTok has won the Aussies’ hearts when it comes to social commerce. With the TikTok shop’s click-to-buy options, Aussies haven’t stopped clicking! Customers find social eCommerce way more engaging and brands are monetising on that with no ado. Brands use social media influencers who find quirky and creative ways to engage customers as well as convert engagement into purchase. If you’re an upcoming brand, I’d suggest social commerce is the way ahead.

Omni-Magic: Unified Commerce

Like the name suggests, Unified Commerce lets merchants integrate all their businesses into one place. It’s a collaboration of sales channels, inventory management, order fulfillment, marketing and other retail activities. It lets merchants operate B2B and D2C sales and domestic and international shipping all under one platform. 

Sounds like a Walmart but for eCommerce? It sure is!

EcoShop Loop: Recommerce

This is the way of the future! Recommerce is where customers can return their used products in exchange for money or store credit, and retailers refurbish and clean the items and sell it back to interested folks at obviously a reduced price. This saves the environment as well as money! 

Still thinking if selling second-hand goods is a good idea? 

I’m sure it’s going to sound as a great idea once you’ve digested these stats: 

• One new garment takes 77 gallons of water and creates 17 pounds of CO2 equivalent.
• Over 100 billion garments are produced each year, and 73% of all apparel that ends up in a landfill is incinerated.
• Buying one used item reduces its carbon, waste, and water footprints by 82%.

It’s a conscious idea indeed, but is it a great idea in terms of business? Well..

• You can convert price-sensitive shoppers.
• You can save on manufacturing and branding.
• First-time shoppers are inclined to be retained because they know they can earn back some money when they resell it. So, they’re doing a part of the marketing for you!
• Main reason: Sustainability!

The Clickdict

For upcoming entrepreneurs, I believe eCommerce is the way of the future and is going to stay that way for a long time! There might be adaptations and innovations, but isn’t that the fun part of it? For now, I’d suggest Recommerce is a pretty good idea to begin with, and ofcourse, investing in AI tools is never a bad option! As long as you have a strong social media presence that’s creative enough to capture the audience’s attention and remain relevant and updated when it comes to trends, I’d say you’re not that far from success after all! Also, last but not the least, concentrate on branding and pricing! Not everything that’s expensive is great!

I hope this guide serves you well! Cheers, mates!

Devavratha Shetty N

A penman aspiring to craft timeless stories! Wordy, yet monosyllabic! A scriber dangling between brevity and verbosity! A narrative writer longing to master consciousness narrative. On the contrary to my multipotentiality, the scripophily in me has echoed perpetually.