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Author: Priya Raman, Retail and Digital Health Writer
Ten years ago, the debate was whether Australians would ever buy clothes without trying them on. That argument is over. Today a quarter of everything we spend at retail happens online, and the categories people once swore they would never buy through a screen, including their medication, are among the fastest growing.
What interests me is not that the shift happened. It is how uneven it has been. Some retailers are riding a genuine boom. Others are watching traffic climb while their profit quietly goes the other way.
Let’s look at what the data actually says, and why pharmacy turned into one of the more interesting corners of Australian ecommerce.
Where the Numbers Actually Sit
The most reliable local snapshot comes from Australia Post, which has been publishing its annual ecommerce report for years using delivery and transaction data.
According to the Australia Post eCommerce Report 2026, Australians spent a record $82.6 billion online in 2025. That was around 14% growth on the year before, and online purchases now make up roughly 24% of total retail spending.
A quarter of all retail spending. That is not a niche anymore.
Participation is the part I find more telling. About 9.8 million households shopped online in 2025, and 41% of households now shop online at least fortnightly.
But here is where a lot of business owners misread the data.
Growth Does Not Mean Everyone Is Winning
Spending is up. Basket sizes are not.
Households now buy from an average of sixteen different brands a year and are making several more online purchases annually than they did previously, while the average basket size has drifted down toward the $96 mark. The report describes this as shopper promiscuity, which is a slightly cheeky term but an accurate one.
So Australians are buying more often, from more places, and spending less each time.
I have watched small retailers celebrate a rising traffic graph while their margins quietly eroded underneath it. More visits, smaller carts, higher acquisition cost. It can look like growth on a dashboard and feel like standing still in the bank account.
The other pressure is obvious to anyone paying attention. Amazon has roughly 7.9 million Australian shoppers, and newer entrants like Temu and Shein are scaling fast. Competing purely on price against that is not a strategy. It is a slow exit.
What Australians Now Expect at Checkout
Delivery has quietly become the deciding factor more often than price.
Around 69% of shoppers want a range of delivery options at checkout, including collection points outside the home, and about 26% expect same or next day delivery when something is urgent.
Friction matters just as much. Shopify research found that just over half of Australians have abandoned a cart because the checkout was too long or complicated, and around 70% say poor delivery information at checkout makes them less likely to finish the purchase.
That second figure always stops me. People are often not abandoning because of the shipping cost. They abandon because nobody told them clearly what happens next.
A short list of things I would fix before touching the ad budget:
- Show an actual delivery date, not a vague “3 to 7 business days”
- Put shipping costs on the product page, not three clicks deep
- Offer at least one pickup or locker option
- Make guest checkout genuinely easy
- Send a real tracking update, not just a dispatch email
None of that is glamorous. All of it converts.
Pharmacy – The Category Nobody Predicted Would Move This Fast
Now to pharmacy, which I think is the most underrated part of this story.
Buying medicines online in Australia used to feel like a last resort. Today, online pharmacy scene has changed in Australia. It is routine, and it has moved well beyond vitamins and sunscreen. Prescription medicines, ongoing treatments, skincare, baby products, first aid supplies, mobility aids. The whole shelf has gone online.
There is a practical reason for it, and it has very little to do with novelty.
Convenience solves a real problem
Most people do not enjoy the pharmacy trip. It is rarely the errand itself, it is the timing. Getting there before closing. Parking. Queuing behind three other people while your lunch break disappears.
For anyone managing an ongoing condition, that trip repeats every month, sometimes more often. Multiply that across a year and the appeal of home delivery stops being about laziness and starts being about time you actually get back.
Distance is a genuine barrier
Australia is a big place with a very unevenly distributed population. Plenty of regional and remote communities have limited local pharmacy access, and in some areas the nearest option is a serious drive.
Online pharmacy fills that gap in a way few other retail categories can. When your closest chemist is ninety minutes away, delivery is not a luxury.
Repeat purchasing suits the model
Long term conditions such as diabetes, high blood pressure, asthma and arthritis create steady, predictable demand. Repeat orders are exactly the kind of buying behaviour that works well online, because the decision has already been made and what people want is reliability rather than browsing.
Market forecasts for Australian e-pharmacy are strongly positive, though I would treat any ten year projection with mild suspicion. The direction of travel is clear enough without needing a precise number.
What Makes a Good Online Pharmacy Experience
Having looked at plenty of online pharmacy sites in Australia, the differences are usually not in the product range. They are in the details.
Clear, honest product information. Health purchases carry more weight than a t-shirt. People want to understand what they are buying, and vague descriptions do not cut it.
Access to a pharmacist. The ability to ask a question and get a proper answer from a qualified person is the single biggest trust signal an online pharmacy can offer. It is also the thing that makes the experience genuinely comparable to walking into a store.
Sensible packaging and dispatch. Discreet, well protected, and quick. Health orders are often time sensitive in a way that homewares are not.
Straightforward reordering. If a customer takes the same product every month, they should not have to rebuild their cart from scratch each time.
Transparent pricing and delivery. No surprises at the final step.
Common Questions
Is online shopping still growing in Australia or has it plateaued?
Still growing, though the pace is worth watching. NAB’s monthly Online Retail Index showed year on year growth easing through late 2025. Assuming 14% repeats forever would be optimistic planning.
Why is online pharmacy growing faster than some other categories?
Because it solves a repeat, unavoidable errand for a large group of people, and because it reaches communities where physical access is limited. Convenience plus necessity is a strong combination.
What do Australians actually buy from online pharmacies?
A broader mix than most people assume. Everyday health and wellbeing products, skincare, vitamins, baby and infant care, first aid, and ongoing prescription medicines.
Which states are growing fastest?
Western Australia led recent growth at around 18% year on year, with Queensland close behind at roughly 15%. That pattern tends to follow areas where physical retail options are thinner.
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