As lockdown forced consumers to upgrade home offices for remote work or turn to the garden and lawncare for outdoor activity when not allowed outside, the home and garden sector grew 67 per cent.
Emmanuel Heymann, SimilarWeb vice president for Australia, New Zealand and Southeast Asia, says that while Australia fared much better than international counterparts during the height of the pandemic, consumers and businesses were still forced to adapt to restrictions.
“With outdoor activity restricted and offices around the nation closed, many Australians turned their attention to gardening and home office upgrades to make the most of the situation,” he explains.
“As consumers adapted to the new ‘locked in’ lifestyle, brands that focused on strong digital-led acquisition strategies were able to capitalise on the shift in behaviour and secure exponential growth.”
As Australians found themselves unable to leave their homes at the height of the pandemic and with many suddenly forced to work from home, SimilarWeb’s analysis found home gardening and home office upgrades were the most popular projects to undertake with the category achieving the highest year-on-year traffic growth.
“Digital has well and truly become the primary way we engage as a society―whether that’s with friends and family via video conference, streaming entertainment, remote work and learning or shopping online.
“Before 2020, a digital presence was for many businesses a ‘nice to have’, but last year accelerated the shift toward digital-first. The fastest growing Australian brands were those who responded best to these new consumer demands.”
Online furniture retailer elivingfurniture.com.au was the fastest growing furniture website in the sector (1225 per cent) while on the gardening and lawn care front, sunshoweronline.com.au (931 per cent) grew fastest.
As previously bricks and mortar retailers rapidly shifted operations online, digital retailers and online department stores experienced the third highest year-on-year traffic growth. This was largely driven by online toy stores, as parents sought creative ways to keep children entertained while in lockdown, with toymate.com.au (318 per cent) growing fastest in the sector.
toyuniverse.com.au and toyworld.com.au also appeared in the top 10 with 185 per cent and 119 per cent growth respectively. The largest retail player in terms of overall traffic was mydeal.com.au, growing by 185 per cent to reach 45 million visitors over the course of 2020.
“We’ve seen the pandemic change online consumer behaviour entirely―it forced even the most traditional businesses to go online.
“As a business, when you first go online it can seem like a jungle. Our data helps organisations contextualise and understand their market, the players and the trends driving the category,” Heymann adds.
