Online shopping appears to be catching on Down Under. New figures from researcher Roy Morgan show that more than one third of the Australian population bought a product or service over the Internet in the 12 months to June 30.

Morgan found 37.9 percent (or 6.7 million Australians) had bought a product or service over the Internet during the year, up from 34.4 percent or 5.9 million Australians in the 12 months.

However, the population is yet to take on buying groceries on the Web. The number of Australians who bought groceries online rose only marginally from 0.9 percent or 162,000 people in 2007-08 to 1.2 percent or 212,000 people in 2008-09.

Roy Morgan CEO Michele Levine says the significant growth in the uptake of buying products and services online over the last 10 years shows no sign of slowing.

"The 'traditional' Internet purchases of travel, books and entertainment are still gaining support while 'newer' categories such as clothing and alcohol are increasingly popular," Levine says.

"As we see an increase in the range of products available online, together with an increase in the number of people who are comfortable giving their credit card details over the Internet, it's not surprising that nearly half the population have bought something online; so the question is why not
groceries?

"As the current online grocery buyers are more likely to be from higher income households with children, professional and semi-professional households often with two incomes, the planned roll-out by Coles and Woolworths should start to see some growth; and it's likely to come from
these time-poor, higher-income Australian families."