Digital Consumer Trends 2020

As Australia’s economy plunges into its first recession in nearly 30 years, consumer spending has fallen too. However, our investment in devices is bucking the trend, highlighting just how integral they are to our lives.

Key findings include:

• 26% of respondents purchased a new device as a result of spending more time at home during the pandemic.
• Laptop and smartphone purchases during COVID-19 were most likely upgrades, but smart TVs were new additions to households.
• Three groups drove pandemic purchasing: young Australians aged between 18-24 years (47%), tech enthusiasts (51%) and home workers (34%).

Read the full report to find out more.

Locked down and living it up: Australians made the most of stay-at-home restrictions by flocking to entertainment. But it wasn’t all fun and games. Digital has helped us stay connected – whether it’s through social media with friends, keeping across the news or conferencing for work.

Key findings include:

• Respondents have increasingly used their smartphone (52%) and social media (35%) through the pandemic.
• 52% of respondents believe their smartphones have made them feel less alone.
• 22% of respondents have used more telehealth services since the beginning of lockdown.

Read the full report to find out more.

No longer a luxury or work perk – working from home has become the norm for many Australians as the pandemic closed offices around the country. While mainly a white-collar trend, the normalisation of the home office could be a turning point for the way we use technology at work.

Key findings include:

• 37% of working Australian survey respondents are now working from home.
• Without having to commute or travel for meetings, Australians are saving 341 minutes on average per working week.
• More than half of Australians who work from home have had an almost seamless experience using technology.

Read the full report to find out more.

Contact tracing apps, QR codes and temperature checks – technology is helping us stay one step ahead in the fight against COVID-19. But it’s coming at a cost to privacy. While right now, Australians see the greater good in using their personal data for health outcomes, this collectivist impulse is unlikely to outlive the crisis.

Key findings include:

• While 80% of respondents believe the companies they interact with online use their data, only 31% were significantly worried about it.
• Approximately two-thirds of Australians aged over 45 years want to do more to protect their privacy but don’t know how.
• Only 30% of respondents think the government should be able to monitor personal health data without permission, in order to lift COVID-19 restrictions more quickly.

Read the full report to find out more.

Pandemic conspiracy theories, a dip in consumer confidence and changes in network infrastructure priorities have hampered the rollout and uptake of 5G. But as digital connection becomes even more important to Australians, we anticipate a turn in the tide.

Key findings include:

• 6% of respondents are using a 5G service, with 63% of these users between the ages of 18-34.
• 43% of respondents believe 5G provides better mobile connectivity.
• 16% of respondents believe there are health risks associated with 5G despite no evidence supporting this claim.

Read the full report to find out more.

COVID-19 has been a time of immense disruption for Australians. As a result, there have already been changes in our digital behaviour that will endure beyond the pandemic.

This first edition of the Digital Consumer Trends report will be a baseline of sorts, tracking the behaviours cemented by the extreme events of 2020. It provides a snapshot of a moment where our physical lives became smaller overnight, and our digital ones far, far larger.

While forced isolation and closed borders could have created a more insular society, we’ve seen a focus on connection through the pandemic; over Zoom, through email, via networked gaming and by plugging into pop culture. A lasting legacy of this pandemic will be a greater awareness of the preciousness of human-to-human contact – whatever form it takes. This focus on connection is likely to persist, along with the technologies that make it possible. 

Read the full report to find out more.