Australians spent a record $82.6 billion online in 2025 — up 14% on the year before, and now 24% of all retail spend, according to the Australia Post eCommerce Report 2026. Online shopping isn't a channel anymore; it's the main floor of the shop.
But the same stretch that headline landed in, the macro picture got more careful. Household spending fell 1.1% month-on-month in April 2026, with discretionary spending down 0.8%, on the ABS Monthly Household Spending Indicator. Annual growth is still positive at 4.9%, but the month-to-month story is a consumer watching every dollar.
That's the tension every eCommerce founder is living: more people buying online, more often — and each of them harder to win and keep. The brands that grow from here won't be the ones that simply buy more traffic. They'll be the ones with the right people pointed at frequency, retention and margin.
A record headline, a cautious consumer
Two data sets, read together, tell the real story.
The Australia Post eCommerce Report 2026 found 9.8 million Australian households shopped online in 2025 — a participation record — and 41% of them now shop online at least fortnightly. Online marketplaces alone took $18.9 billion, up 13%, reaching 73% of all households that shop online. Shoppers are also spreading their money around: the average household bought from about 16 different brands across the year.
At the same time, the ABS Monthly Household Spending Indicator showed spending dipping month-on-month, with discretionary categories leading the fall.
So the demand is there, it's frequent, and it's loyal to no one. People are online more, buying across more brands, and quicker to leave a basket if the experience or the price isn't right. Growth stops being about getting found once. It becomes about getting chosen again.
What record online spend actually changes about growth
When 24% of retail is online and shoppers buy fortnightly from 16 brands, three things move to the centre of the growth job:
- Frequency and retention beat one-off acquisition. When a customer buys from 16 brands a year, the win isn't the first order — it's the second and third. Lifecycle, email and SMS, and a reason to come back now matter as much as the top of the funnel.
- Efficiency, not just spend. With discretionary budgets tight, every dollar of paid media has to work harder. That's a media-buying and measurement problem — knowing what's actually driving margin, not just clicks.
- Marketplace presence is its own discipline. With $18.9 billion flowing through marketplaces, being findable and competitive there is a specific skill set, separate from running your own store.
None of this is exotic. It's just a different shape of work than "drive more visits" — and it needs a different shape of team.
The eCommerce talent that moves these numbers
This is the People side of what we do at Kindred Talent. The brands growing through a careful market tend to have four capabilities covered — rarely all in one person:
- Performance and paid media — someone who can hold acquisition cost down while keeping volume up, and who reads margin, not just return on ad spend.
- Retention and lifecycle — CRM, email and SMS, loyalty: the unglamorous work that lifts repeat rate and customer lifetime value.
- Marketplace and channel — managing presence, pricing and content where a growing share of shoppers actually start.
- Analytics and measurement — the person who tells you which of the above is working, so you stop guessing.
In the eCommerce roles we see across our network, the brief has quietly shifted from "growth marketer" to this more specific blend. The hardest part isn't knowing you need it. It's that most lean eCommerce teams can't justify four full-time hires to get it — and the cost of getting one of those hires wrong, in a tight year, is real.
Why "hire everyone, full-time" breaks for lean brands
A founder doing $5M online doesn't need a permanent head of lifecycle, a permanent marketplace manager, a permanent analyst and a permanent media buyer. They need those capabilities — at the right size, at the right time.
That's the case for mixing engagement models instead of defaulting to full-time everything:
- A fractional growth or eCommerce lead to set direction a few days a month.
- A contract specialist to fix retention or rebuild measurement, then hand it over.
- A freelance paid-media operator for a defined push — a product launch, an end-of-financial-year campaign, a peak-season run.
- Permanent hires only where the work is genuinely ongoing and core.
We wrote more on choosing between these in our guide to freelance, contract, fractional or permanent engagement models, and on the wider build in the eCommerce growth stack in 2026.
How Kindred helps
Kindred Talent is a referral network, not a recruiter and not a job board. We make warm introductions only — people we know, introduced to people we know — across three pillars:
- People: permanent, contract, freelance and fractional eCommerce talent — performance and paid media, retention and CRM, marketplace, analytics and growth leadership.
- Partners: warm referrals to trusted independent digital agencies when a project is bigger than one person.
- Platforms: introductions to the analytics and marketing tools that earn their place in your stack.
Because every introduction is vouched for, you meet proven operators instead of screening a pile of applications. It's a big part of why 94% of our placements are still in role at six months. And 5% of every placement fee goes to a charity the client nominates.
If you're deciding which eCommerce capability to add before the next peak, have a chat with us — tell us what you're trying to grow, and we'll point you to the right person.
The bottom line
Online shopping is at a record and still climbing, but the consumer behind it is careful and spread thin across brands. Winning that shopper is now a retention, efficiency and marketplace problem more than a traffic one — and that calls for a specific blend of eCommerce talent, sized to the brand rather than bolted on full-time. A warm introduction to the right operator beats a hopeful hire every time.
Frequently asked questions
How much do Australians spend online now?
Australians spent a record $82.6 billion online in 2025, up 14% year-on-year — about 24% of all retail spend, according to the Australia Post eCommerce Report 2026.
Is eCommerce still growing if household spending is soft?
Yes. Online participation hit a record 9.8 million households in 2025 and the online share of retail keeps rising, even though the ABS recorded a 1.1% month-on-month dip in total household spending in April 2026. People are shopping online more often, but they're more careful about each purchase — so retention and efficiency matter more.
What eCommerce roles should a growing brand prioritise?
Most growing brands need four capabilities covered: performance and paid media, retention and lifecycle (CRM, email, SMS), marketplace management, and analytics. Few brands need all four full-time, which is why mixing fractional, contract, freelance and permanent talent usually makes more sense.
How is Kindred Talent different from a recruitment agency?
Kindred is a referral network, not a recruiter or job board. We make warm introductions to people already vouched for in our network, rather than advertising roles and screening strangers — which is part of why 94% of our placements are still in role at six months.