Mobile Wallets Drive Australia’s Online Card Spending Past $500 Billion

As Australia’s leading pure-play online retailer of furniture and homewares, Temple & Webster is deeply invested in tracking how Australians shop online. With Australian digital card spending surpassing $500 billion, mobile wallets are accelerating a permanent shift toward digital commerce. Yet, at just 20% online penetration, furniture and homewares in Australia remains one of retail's least digitised sectors—lagging behind key international markets like the US (35%) and UK (29%). This research highlights the massive structural runway ahead as we continue to lead the digital transformation of home retail, helping Australians make their spaces more beautiful, one room at a time. 
 

Australia's online and remote card spending has crossed $500 billion for the first time, with mobile wallets accounting for three-quarters of the growth.

• Online and remote card spending reached $500.3 billion in the year to July 2026, up from the previous benchmark in September 2025.
• Mobile wallets drove $378.2 billion of the $500.3 billion total, representing 75.7% of online and remote card spending.
• Online and remote spending now accounts for 46.6% of all Australian card transactions, both in-store and online combined ($1,073.5 billion).
• Debit card mobile wallet payments surged 59.4% year-on-year in July 2026, outpacing credit card growth of 30.2% over the same period.
• Credit card mobile wallet spending ($69.4 billion) leads debit mobile wallet spending ($39.1 billion) by a significant margin.
• Mobile wallet payments climbed from 17.3% to 21.7% of all online and remote spending over the past year, or from 18.0% to 23.3% month-on-month.
• Bill payments have reached 82% online penetration, the highest of any category, up from 78% in 2022.
• Furniture and household goods remain the least digitised category at 30% online penetration, up from 26% in 2022.
• Traditional card entry methods (typed-in or saved numbers) remained flat year-on-year for both credit and debit online payments.

 
 

What it means

Mobile wallets have become the dominant form of online card payment in Australia, and their continued acceleration, particularly among debit users, signals a structural shift away from traditional payment entry methods. The near-equivalence between online spending and total card spending shows that Australians have now fundamentally rebalanced how they use cards, with digital channels capturing almost half of all card transactions. Across categories, digitisation is advancing unevenly: high-value, repeatable transactions like bill payments are near-complete migration to online, while physical goods like furniture remain anchored to in-store purchase, though the direction is unmistakable. The generational shift toward younger shoppers using online channels for homewares suggests this gap will continue to narrow.

Surpassing $500 billion in digital spending proves that online and mobile payments are now the standard for Australian consumers. While furniture shopping remains anchored in-store today, steady online growth and digital wallet adoption among younger shoppers signal a clear shift forward. Australia is amidst a once-in-a-generation transition toward online retail, and Temple & Webster is proud to lead that evolution—combining convenience, value, and design to help every Australian build a functional, joyful, and beautiful home.