Australians are the top online shopping consumers: Survey

The annual World Internet Project has found that the number of online purchases made by Australians grew by more than 46 percent between 2011 and 2013.

The monthly value of online purchases per person grew by nearly six percent to $218.

Scott Ewing of Swinburne University, one of the authors of the report, said it showed Australians were making online shopping part of their everyday lives.

"Australians are more likely to shop weekly or more often than other jurisdictions, so in 2013 it was something like three in ten Australians shopped online at least weekly," he said adding "that compared to two in ten roughly in New Zealand, and it was just 10 percent in Switzerland".

In Australia, the survey projected, men still lead online spending, buying $229 of goods a month compared to $204 for women.

Around half the Australians who shop online mostly used local websites.

At least 79 percent of Australians preferred to shop online locally rather than overseas.

"We ask about preferences, whether Australians would prefer to shop with Australian websites, and overwhelmingly the answer to that is yes they would," he said.

"When we ask them about what they actually do, around 50 percent told us that all of their shopping online or most of their shopping online was conducted with Australian websites.

"Some of the most common shopping included travel bookings (with 73 percent of people booking online), bill payments (72 percent) and event ticket purchases (65 percent)."

The survey also confirmed the growing trend for consumers to research product features and prices online before buying either online or in-store.

The report disclosed five out of six Australians have at some point used the web to seek information about potential purchases before buying, and over a quarter of the population is buying something online at least once a week.