Business chamber urges people to spend local as Tamworth ranks fifth in regional NSW for online shopping

The city experienced a 15.9 per cent increase in online shopping from 2020, but has jumped up 81.7 per cent since 2019.

President of the Tamworth Business Chamber, Stephanie Cameron, said people could get the best of both worlds, but believes there are benefits to going in person that people just can't get online.

"If they like the idea of online shopping then have a look for local options online, there's the click and collect opportunity, and there are ways to shop online but still support local businesses," she said.

"I think some of the best things about shopping in person is ... you can return items, look at the item and try it on, feel it, you can talk to the shop owner about the advantages of various products.

"And it's local knowledge as well, what works for our local region and you can't beat that."

Ms Cameron did take some positives out of the statistics though, as she said it indicated after two years of penny-pinching due to COVID, money was finally flowing freely throughout the economy.

"It's really good to hear that there is consistent and increased retail shopping in the Tamworth region," she said.

But there is a growing chorus of people who argue online shopping offers them things they can't get in person.

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Among those is 17-year-old student Emelyn Haling, who said as a young person it's easy to get your head turned by everything the internet has to offer.

"I order mostly clothes, I think it's good because here in Tamworth we only have a few options and it just provides broader options for anything really, and it's good because it's delivered straight to your door," she said.

"For us there's only three or four shops for us [in Tamworth] as compared to online that has millions and millions of websites."

She did say it's not a case of one or the other, and people that shop online often also go down the main street and spend money there, but believes lots of people prefer the former option these days.

"I think people do both, but I would say people are doing predominately more online shopping than in-person shopping."

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