Atomic 212° predicts good times ahead as Christmas spending soars

If the crowds in your local shopping centre haven’t already given you a clue, Australia is spending big this Christmas. Total transactions are up 20%. Online spending is up 23%.

According to Atomic 212°’s general manager of media and technology, Tom Sheppard, “These figures are one of the clearest indications yet that consumer confidence is on the rise and Christmas is once again a time for retail joy.”

Atomic 212° Data and Analytics has been doing the number crunching from a variety of sources to ascertain retail spending in the build up to Christmas – including Google Analytics Customer Data.

“It is incredibly promising that total spend has increased by such a large amount – not just digital spend. While consumers are increasingly moving to digital, the overall pie is still increasing. Of course, the move to e-commerce is undeniable,” Sheppard continued.

“Consumers are time-poor. They like simple and savvy solutions. The online space makes the retail experience much easier during the Christmas rush.”

NSW tops the e-commerce charts with a 26% increase in spending, followed by Victoria (up by 25%) and Queensland (up by 21%). [Source: Google Analytics Customer Data]

“Many of our clients that operate in the e-commerce space are finding that online traffic is increasing as consumers become more comfortable spending money online. There is a noticeable change in attitude even among those demographics that traditionally do not spend in the online space,” Sheppard commented.

Year-on-year online traffic is up 10.2%, with 49% of people preferring mobile transactions, and iPhone sessions up by 24% since last year (Source: Google Analytics Customer Data).

Interestingly, desktop and tablet use for online shopping are both down by about 1%.

Meanwhile, Atomic 212° client, Interflora, has also revealed some interesting figures in the lead up to Christmas.

According to Interflora’s data, Northern Territory is on top when it comes to spend per gift, with $94 on average per gift. Tasmania is second with $92 per gift, followed by Queensland with $90 per gift. NSW sits in fifth place, and while it gives the most gifts overall that’s not the case when it comes to gifts per person.