More than 1.3 million households joined the online shopping revolution last year as the pandemic drove a mammoth shift in shopping habits. New figures released by Australia Post on Wednesday show e-commerce booked three years worth of growth in just 12 months over 2020 — forcing big names like Myer to close once-bustling stores and pivot to digital as annual online sales topped $50bn. Australia’s shift to online shopping has been so fast that the nation’s largest department store chain revealed plans on Wednesday to shut down its long-standing Knox store in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs. More than 16% of retail dollars are now spent online, and Australia Post e-commerce expects that figure to hit 20% by 2022. After struggling to keep up with demand last year as nine million households (82% of Australia) went online, the taxpayer-owned postie is now pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into warehousing.