Aidan Curtis
MOUNT Gambier has been named as one of South Australia’s biggest online shoppers, according to an Australia Post Report.
The 2023 Inside Australian Online Shopping Report found there was a 6.1 per cent increase in online shopping locally despite a national decline of 2.6 per cent.
Mount Gambier was the third biggest online shopper in the state, with 77 per cent of residents taking advantage of ecommerce opportunities.
Australia Post executive general manager parcel, post and ecommerce services Gary Starr said it did not look like online shopping was going to slow down despite the removal of Covid restrictions.
“One million more households are now shopping online compared to 2019 and on average 5.6 million households made an online purchase every month during the past year,” Mr Starr said.
“The growth trend in online was steady prior to COVID-19 but spiked during restrictions, now it’s showing a return to normal trend growth.
“By 2033, we expect around one in three dollars will be spent online.”
Mount Gambier Chamber of Commerce president Candice Fennell said while online shopping was just part of life and certainly had its place in the community, people should still look to shop local first and foremost.
Ms Fennell said it was important to find the balance by taking advantage of local businesses that offered online shopping.
“The main thing is that we all take a step back and our first preference, as a business community and a community in general, we really should be thinking about can we get this item in our local area,” she said.
“If the answer is yes, then we should be trying our hardest to help support our local business owners.”
Ms Fennell said the local business community offered a lot of opportunities that many other regional centres did not.
“We’ve got a lot of opportunity in our community, particularly with our opening hours and businesses are open all through the week and on the weekend,” she said.
“A lot of places in other areas and other states don’t have that, so I think we should take advantage of the fact we have those businesses.
“Whether it’s shopping local or visiting stores, our tourism businesses, it’s all really important where we can to get that local push.”
