Australia Ecommerce Industry Report

Traffic Peaked in Late 2024 and Has Not Recovered

Monthly average traffic across Australian ecommerce stores began 2024 at 102,185.37 in January and climbed steadily to a peak of 184,923.92 in October 2024. The September 2024 reading alone reached 175,652.12, and the October figure marked the high-water point of the entire series. From there the trend reversed. January 2025 opened at 122,787.42, and the 2025 calendar year never approached the prior autumn and holiday highs. September 2025 averaged 109,920.21, a fraction of the 175,652.12 recorded twelve months earlier. The series then slipped further through late 2025 and into 2026. The latest reading for September 2026 stands at 97,738.82, the lowest monthly average in the dataset. Store counts remained stable across the arc, moving from 5,494 in early 2024 to 5,485 in September 2026, with a high of 5,539 in March and April 2026. The traffic contraction is therefore not explained by a shrinking cohort of stores, since the count of reporting stores has barely moved. The pressure is on per-store traffic.

Organic Search Dominates a Narrowing Traffic Mix

In the latest period, total traffic of 536,097,440 is overwhelmingly concentrated in a single channel. Organic search accounts for 373,814,706 visits, or 69.7% of the total. Paid search contributes 880,588 visits, or 0.2%. Paid social delivers 14,979,034 visits, or 2.8%, while organic social adds 3,678,176, or 0.7%. The paid channels are marginal at segment level: paid search at 0.2%, paid social at 2.8%, and organic social at 0.7%. That concentration makes the organic search trajectory critical for the segment. Organic search traffic YoY growth stands at -13.3%, meaning the channel that supplies 69.7% of visits is contracting at a double-digit rate. With paid search at 0.2% and paid social at 2.8%, there is no paid buffer capable of offsetting the organic decline at current spending levels. The mix is narrow, and the dominant channel is weakening.

Revenue Declines Mirror Traffic Softness

Revenue monthly averages show the same stress with greater volatility. The series opens at 7,239,872.05 in January 2024 and peaks at 14,675,514.89 in November 2024. September 2024 revenue averaged 13,520,725.67, a strong pre-holiday reading. The subsequent correction was steep. September 2025 revenue averaged 7,581,619.74, and the series bottomed at 3,294,210.06 in November 2025. The latest reading is 7,474,587.75 in September 2026, based on 5,271 stores. Revenue store counts range from 5,216 in early 2024 to 5,271 in September 2026, dipping to 5,243 in August 2026 before recovering. The combination of a traffic peak of 184,923.92 in October 2024, a latest traffic reading of 97,738.82 in September 2026, and organic search YoY growth of -13.3% points to an acquisition constraint rather than a participation problem. The store base is intact; the traffic and revenue per store are not.

SEO Traffic Decline Accelerates
In September 2026, average SEO traffic for Australian e-commerce stores was 68,152.18, down from 141,128.47 in September 2024 and 83,019.90 in January 2024. The organic search traffic growth rate is -13.3%, while organic SERPs growth is -30.8%. The most recent month covers 5,485 stores, compared to 5,494 in January 2024 and 5,455 in August 2026. Average total traffic in September 2026 was 97,738.82. The SEO traffic distribution reveals that 4,057 stores receive fewer than 50,000 monthly visits, 495 stores fall between 100,000 and 250,000, and 222 stores exceed 250,000. This distribution highlights a long tail of low-traffic stores. The decline has been particularly sharp in recent months: average SEO traffic was 76,172.24 in July 2026, 69,247.40 in August 2026, and 68,152.18 in September 2026. This steady decrease suggests ongoing challenges in organic search performance for the segment.

Domain Authority and PageRank Slide
Average PageRank for the segment is 2.635894, and PageRank year-over-year growth is -11.4%. The domain authority trend shows a marked decline from September 2024, when average PageRank was 3.826840 across 5,124 stores. It fell to 3.465119 in October 2024, then to 2.848039 in January 2025. It held steady at 2.848039 through May 2025 across 709 stores. By June 2025, it was 2.846911. There was a slight recovery to 3.243592 in August 2025, but by January 2026 it dropped to 2.532020 across 693 stores. In September 2026, average PageRank was 2.256287 across 322 stores, and the latest data for October 2026 shows 1.838571 across 452 stores. The varying number of stores measured across periods means these averages should be interpreted with caution, but the downward direction is consistent.

Backlink and Referring Domain Volatility
In September 2026, Australian e-commerce stores averaged 27,094.56 backlinks and 519.21 referring domains across 5,441 stores. This is a decrease in referring domains from December 2025, when the average was 799.97 across 612 stores. In February 2026, the average was 25,614.29 backlinks and 615.12 referring domains across 5,029 stores. The most recent October 2026 data, covering 372 stores, shows an average of 40,023.42 backlinks and 1,008.05 referring domains. Early data points are highly volatile: October 2024 had average backlinks of 747,279.00 and referring domains of 14,787.00, but these figures come from just one store. The backlink profile remains inconsistent, with the number of stores sampled fluctuating widely, which affects the reliability of average values.

Google Ads Spend Falls to a Fraction of Prior Levels

Australian e-commerce stores in the segment averaged $256.8058 in Google Ads spend, which is 73.6% of the global average of $348.7724. That figure marks a steep retreat from earlier peaks: spending reached $14714.3030 in November 2025 and $14188.5011 in August 2025, then $13269.7806 in September 2025. Through 2026 the level held between $10971.8008 in June 2026 and $13731.3687 in January 2026 before dropping to $6712.5663 in July 2026 and recovering to $9089.5246 in August 2026. The most recent month, September 2026, shows only $256.8058 across 278 stores, a fraction of the 2646 stores measured in August 2026. Coverage confirms the pullback: Google Ads stores active this year represent 32.27% of the segment, while stores active last month are just 9.47%. Paid Google traffic mirrors the trend, falling from $17933.9368 in April 2026 to $12229.1260 in August 2026 and $1502.7099 in September 2026. Paid traffic year over year stands at -69.1%.

Meta Ads Spend Runs 164.8% of Global Average

Meta Ads spend (estimate) for the segment averages $4003.6510 against a global average of $2428.7672, or 164.8% of global. The channel's trajectory is one of sustained expansion: spend moved from $503.3488 in January 2024 to $1493.5073 in January 2026, then $3048.2005 in June 2026, $4355.0425 in July 2026, $4557.3940 in August 2026, and $4531.8768 in September 2026. October 2026 records $4031.9878 across 164 stores. Estimated Meta traffic follows the same path, reaching $6188.3634 in August 2026, $6153.7332 in September 2026, and $5474.8963 in October 2026. Adoption is broad: Meta Ads stores active this year represent 65.56% of the segment, and stores active last month reach 83.65%, well ahead of the equivalent Google figures of 32.27% and 9.47%.

Total Paid Media Spend Exceeds Global Benchmark

Combined paid media spend for the segment averages $3950.4927, compared with a global average of $2362.5334, which is 167.2% of global. This positions Australian stores as heavier paid media investors than the global benchmark. Direction, however, matters: paid cost year over year is -17.1% while paid traffic year over year is -69.1%. The divergence between spend and traffic patterns reflects a shift in channel mix rather than uniform contraction, with Google activity receding to 278 stores in September 2026 while Meta retains 2451 stores in the same month. Taken together, the segment is concentrating paid investment into Meta while Google budgets and store participation shrink sharply.

Instagram traffic trends for Australian e-commerce stores

In September 2026, Instagram traffic accounted for 0.7% of total traffic for Australian e-commerce stores, with an average of 734.88 visits per store. This represents a decline from August 2026 when Instagram traffic was 828.77 visits per store and a 0.8% share, and a further drop from July 2026 when traffic reached 1370.08 visits per store and a 1.1% share. The sample size has grown substantially, from 138 stores in April 2025 to 4423 stores in September 2026. Instagram posts per week averaged 3.30 in the current month, an increase of 0.11 from 3.19 in the previous month. The follower distribution among these stores shows 2146 stores with under 10000 followers, 1230 with 10000 to 50000 followers, 431 with 50000 to 100000 followers, 393 with 100000 to 250000 followers, and 348 with over 250000 followers. In April 2025, when the sample was much smaller at 138 stores, average Instagram traffic was 2327.45 visits per store, indicating that per-store traffic was higher in the earlier, smaller cohort. Similarly, in May 2025 and June 2025, average Instagram traffic was 2143.55 and 2115.07 visits per store across 330 and 268 stores, respectively. The number of stores surged to 3959 in February 2026 from 600 in January 2026, coinciding with a drop in average Instagram traffic to 679.55 visits per store.

TikTok traffic trends for Australian e-commerce stores

In September 2026, TikTok traffic represented 0.3% of total traffic, with an average of 348.93 visits per store across 1226 stores. This marks an increase in share from 0.2% in August 2026, despite a slight decline in average traffic from 354.64 visits per store in August. The segment has expanded from 15 stores in January 2025 to 1226 stores in September 2026. Weekly TikTok uploads increased by 1.46 to 4.18 from 2.71 in the previous month. In earlier periods, such as March 2025, TikTok traffic averaged 2141.95 visits per store with only 42 stores, showing that per-store traffic was much higher when the sample was smaller. By April 2026, traffic had fallen to 310.61 visits per store across 1056 stores, before recovering to 348.93 in September 2026. The number of stores jumped to 1035 in February 2026 from 227 in January 2026, with average TikTok traffic falling to 355.98 from 721.26. Throughout 2025, TikTok traffic per store ranged from 566.50 in August to 1218.24 in April, but the share remained between 0.2% and 0.4%.

Overall organic social traffic

Organic social traffic across all platforms accounted for 0.7% of total traffic in September 2026, with an average of 670.59 visits per store across 5485 stores. This is down from July 2026 when organic social traffic was 1047.16 visits per store and a 0.9% share, and from August 2026 when it was 683.87 visits per store and a 0.7% share. In January 2025, organic social traffic was just 0.39 visits per store across 5529 stores, with a 0.0% share. The share rose to 0.4% in February 2026, 0.5% in March 2026, 0.4% in April 2026, 0.4% in May 2026, 0.5% in June 2026, 0.9% in July 2026, before settling at 0.7% in August and September 2026. The average posts per week across all stores is 4.06. Average total traffic for the segment declined from 122787.42 in January 2025 to 97738.82 in September 2026. The number of stores in the organic social sample has remained relatively stable, from 5529 in January 2025 to 5485 in September 2026.

Overall Performance Trajectory

As of 2026-09-01, Australia e-commerce stores record an average Lighthouse Performance score of 0.50 out of 100. The monthly benchmark movement shows the segment improving from 0.50 in the previous month to 0.53 in the current month, a change of 0.03 that equates to an increase of 3%. The segment average of 0.50 sits below the current-month benchmark figure of 0.53, which indicates that the gains captured in the benchmark are not yet fully reflected across the broader cohort of stores measured. This gap matters for merchants because a sub-1.00 performance score typically translates into slower page rendering, higher bounce exposure, and weaker conversion capture on mobile traffic, where most Australian e-commerce sessions originate.

The performance movement is the second-largest of the three tracked Lighthouse dimensions in the period, trailing only accessibility. That ordering suggests storefront teams have prioritised accessibility remediation and technical hygiene ahead of raw rendering speed, a pattern consistent with the modest 0.03 improvement recorded for performance against the 0.05 recorded for accessibility.

Search Visibility Holds Above 0.90

The average Lighthouse SEO score for the segment is 0.92 out of 100, placing search readiness comfortably above the 0.90 threshold that generally signals clean meta structures, crawlable markup, and valid link architecture. The benchmark shows SEO advancing from 0.92 in the previous month to 0.94 in the current month, a change of 0.02, equivalent to a gain of 2%.

SEO is the highest-scoring dimension tracked for the segment, and the current-month benchmark reading of 0.94 is the strongest single figure reported in the dataset. Because the previous-month benchmark stood at 0.92, the movement is incremental rather than transformative, but it compounds a base that is already near the ceiling of the Lighthouse SEO scale. Stores operating at 0.94 have comparatively little headroom left, so future effort is more likely to deliver returns through performance and accessibility work than through further SEO tuning.

Accessibility Posts the Largest Monthly Gain

Accessibility records the sharpest improvement of any tracked dimension, moving from 0.86 in the previous month to 0.91 in the current month, a change of 0.05 that represents a gain of 5%. That is the largest single-month movement in the benchmark set, and it lifts the dimension from a level that would typically flag contrast, labelling, and focus-order issues into a range where only minor structural defects remain.

The combined picture for 2026-09-01 is a segment where SEO (0.92 average, 0.94 current-month benchmark) and accessibility (0.91 current month) are both healthy, while performance (0.50 average, 0.53 current month) remains the clear constraint. Australia e-commerce stores closing that performance gap would face the highest-leverage technical work available to them in the period, since every other tracked dimension already sits above 0.90.