According to recent research released by Roy Morgan Research in the year to September 2015, a total of 667,000 over the age of 14 Australians (3.4%) were Costco shoppers (people who visit in an average four-week period and/or say they mainly or sometimes shop there). Of all these Total Costco shoppers, 420,000 (63%) actually shop there in an average four weeks—a proportion well below the 80-90% among Woolworths, Coles, IGA or ADLI shoppers.
“With data to the end of 2015 available soon, we may well find that, with its latest eighth store included, Costco has pipped 700,000 shoppers across Australia. Costco announced this week that it plans to open another three stores this year, each in cities where it already has at least one outlet.” Michele Levine, CEO Roy Morgan Research commented.
Levine explained that each new Costco store adds new shoppers overall, with growth strongest when a new city gets its first outlet. Within two years of its much-hyped Australian store launching in Melbourne’s Docklands in August 2009, Costco gained around 140,000 shoppers—but this showed signs of having peaked. After the second and third stores opened in Sydney and Canberra in July 2011, the total number of shoppers soon surpassed 300,000—but again, after a couple of years, growth appeared to be slowing.
“Trending the growth in the total number of Costco shoppers nationwide suggests that second stores which opened in Melbourne and Sydney in November 2013 had less of an overall impact than did their first stores in those cities, or the subsequent new stores in Brisbane and Adelaide. We’ll soon know the results of Melbourne’s third store, and be tracking throughout the year as more stores open.” Ms. Levine commented.

the rise of Costco in Australia

Ms. Levine went on to point out that second stores in both Melbourne and Sydney in November 2013 gained some new shoppers in each city, but growth really accelerated once Brisbane got its first Costco in May 2014 and Adelaide its first in November 2014. This latest data doesn’t yet show the impact of the eighth Costco store that opened in Moorabbin in November; new data covering the last quarter of 2015 will be available soon.