More adult Australians than ever took to online retailers and department stores for their Christmas shopping in December 2017 (14.4 million), growing the number of people who visited the online mass-merchandise sub-category by 6.3 per cent when compared with December 2016.

Almost nine million (8.8 million) adult Australians spent an average of 56 minutes online during December 2017, searching and shopping in the mass-merchandise sub-category via desktop. More Australians accessed via their smartphones (9.3 million), however with a lower average time of 18 minutes per person, followed by tablet with 4.9 million people who spent close to 17 minutes on average per person.

Grocery retailers also fared well with their online offerings over the Christmas period, with Woolworths, Coles and ALDI all reporting notable growth in audiences to their sites and apps.