Danae Dimitropoulos
December 10, 2012
Herald Sun
AUSTRALIAN shoppers set a record in online trading, ordering more than 500,000 items yesterday.
The pre-Christmas rush comes as shoppers ditch traditional retailers to buy online.
Australia Post spokeswoman Mel Ward said 70 per cent of packages through the post office were now online purchases.
The post office expects to deliver an extra three million parcels this Christmas, with half a million of those just from yesterday’s online shopping boom.
Ms Ward said the sooner people shopped for Christmas the better.
“It’s not do-or-die, but you want to be getting in sooner than later and not leaving it last minute for online shopping,” she said.
Holly Lucas, 22, of Toorak, was among the online shoppers yesterday.
A lover of high-end designer shoes and bags, Ms Lucas owns an extensive range of labels including Balenciaga, Givenchy and Alexander Wang. She bought a Givenchy bag online for $700, when it was selling for $1865 at shops, and Alexander Wang heels for $200, which normally sell for $720.
“I love designer bags and shoes but prefer buying a secondhand and slightly used bag. It’s so much better than buying it brand new and more expensive,” Ms Lucas said.
“The stock in Australia is overpriced and there’s less variety. So I choose to shop online where there’s much more and I buy on eBay so I don’t have to pay tax.”
But Ms Lucas doesn’t keep her designer bags for long.
“I have a revolving wardrobe, I sell a lot of stuff to make money and then buy new things,” she said.
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