Majority of Aussies have finished Christmas shopping

The majority of Australians have already completed their Christmas shopping according to new research by delivery firm CouriersPlease, which found that nine in 10 are finished with holiday spending.

The research found 11 per cent of survey respondents leave shopping to December, and only 4 per cent leave shopping to the very last week before Christmas.

“It’s interesting to see the changing Christmas shopping habits of Aussies, in that they’re starting earlier than the industry would generally expect,” CouriersPlease spokesperson Jessica Ip said.

“We think this change has come about due to the increase in online shopping and retailers participating in global shopping events such as Click Frenzy, Black Friday and Cyber Monday.”

EBay told IR that 2.62 million customers shopped on its marketplace on December 3, signalling that many are beginning the process of shopping earlier in the holiday season.

“We saw an additional 20,000 Aussies online throughout the day, buying gifts at a rate of 4.3 every second – with health and beauty the most popular category for Christmas gifting with an item sold every two seconds,” eBay head of retail insights Gavin Dennis said.

“Toys were not far behind, with a rate of an item sold every three seconds.”

CP found that those Australians who leave gift buying until the last minute are primarily frozen by not knowing what to buy, with 19 per cent of respondents struggling to choose gifts.

A further 13 per cent cited work commitments as getting in the way of their shopping, while another 13 per cent simply weren’t organised.

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