Australian health and wellness branding company Wellnex Life will launch its own e-commerce platform in 2022, looking to capitalise on the rapid growth within this sales channel.

While the company has recorded respectable growth recently, CEO George Karafotias told ShareCafe’s Hidden Gems that Wellnex Life is exploring options to accelerate its expansion.

Wellnex currently enjoys existing exclusive relationships with national pharmacies and supermarkets for select brands and products. For Wellnex’s wholly-owned brands – such as Wakey Wakey and The Iron Company – the company plans to launch an e-commerce platform to help drive growth.

Among these options, Mr Karafotias said, will be the launches of new brands and products, as well as possible acquisitions intended to turbo-charge growth.

But the company is also looking to grow by offering a new digital sales channel for its existing and soon-to-be-released product lines, to support its acceleration plans.

“The growth of online sales especially through this COVID period has been enormous and we want to take advantage of that,” Mr Karafotias said.

“So in the new year you will see the company launching a new e-commerce platform.”

While Mr Karafotias did not provide specific details about the platform, his comments come as online retail’s popularity reaches new heights.

Data from Australia Post shows 5.9 million Australian households made online purchases in August 2021 – a 24% increase on August 2020 and enough to set a new record for Australian e-commerce.

Australia Post noted the volume of online sales made during the month was on par with the total for last year’s Christmas period, with every state except Victoria recording an uptick in year-on-year digital sales.

Although the predominant cause for this switch to online retail is the closure of physical storefronts during the pandemic, Australia Post’s data showed many others were making purchases simply because they had more spare time to shop, or were spending more time online.

Just under one-fifth of shoppers even said they made online purchases because it “gives [them] something to do”.

Based on recent digital sales data, Power Retail now expects Australians will spend $16.9 billion online in the December quarter, cautioning retailers to be prepared – not only for the Christmas rush, but the inevitable returns that will follow. 

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Sources:

• ShareCafe: “Hidden Gems” Webinar – 1 October
• Auspost: September eCommerce insights
• Power Retail: Report: December to be Biggest Online Shopping Quarter on Record. Are you Prepared?