There has been a notable slip in online traffic in Australia to some of the most popular local and international retail websites from July to August 2026.
New Semrush data reveals that across the top 20 most visited retail websites, only one reported a lift in online traffic month-on-month: AliExpress. The low-price platform saw a 5.37 per cent lift in online traffic to 14.35 million
The most popular retail website, Amazon, saw an 11.85 per cent fall in online traffic to 56.13 million, with Kmart down 15.29 per cent to 26.46 million. eBay, meanwhile, saw the slowest fall month-on-month, down 1.32 per cent to 24.87 million.
Amazon also suffered with a year-on-year traffic slip of just 0.26 per cent.
On the fashion front, the top four most-visited fashion websites saw a fall month-on-month. Myer, which is the most-visited fashion-centric website in Australia, saw a 16.16 per cent monthly fall in online traffic to 10.43 million. In second place, Shein saw a 9.81 per cent fall in traffic to 6.92 million, with The Iconic being one of the slowest drops in the top 20, falling just 1.51 per cent to 6 million. David Jones also suffered a monthly fall of 12.83 per cent to 4.78 million.
Despite these monthly falls, all of the top four saw lifts in year-on-year terms, with David Jones reporting the slowest lift of 0.85 per cent from August 2025 to August 2026. Shein saw the strongest yearly growth of 34.49 per cent, The Iconic grew 8.16 per cent, and Myer saw a 6.25 per cent lift.
The backtrack in online retail traffic in August comes ahead of peak period, which may suggest consumers are holding back before launching into Black Friday/Cyber Monday and Christmas promotions.
Past data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) shows this, with online spending falling up to September before growing in October through to November.
While Australia’s top retail websites suffered month-on-month, Semrush data shows that fashion retailers saw mixed movements in terms of online traffic. Those reporting growths month-on-month included Cotton On (up 3.57 per cent to 3.96 million), Uniqlo (up 3.81 per cent to 3.32 million), Glassons (up 19.88 per cent to 2.49 million) and Lululemon (up 20.62 per cent to 2.1 million).
In year-on-year terms, almost all of the top 20 fashion websites in Australia saw growth. The largest growths included Cotton On (up 24.25 per cent to 3.96 million), Kookai (up 32.08 per cent to 2.28 million), Next (up 59.15 per cent to 1.96 million) and Best & Less (up 66.81 per cent to 1.51 million).
The only one to see a fall in year-on-year website traffic growth was ASOS, which dropped 6.05 per cent to 1.78 million.