Displaying items by tag: Online retailing

The chief technology officer of an application performance management software company claims that online retail giant Amazon will face several technological challenges in Australia, a market which it is about to enter.

An increasing number of Australia’s “pure play” online-only retailers are now planning to open physical stores to drive sales as a way of further extending their market reach.

200 small online businesses are already involved in an attempt to bring a US-style Cyber Monday online shopping event to Australia.

For the year to April 2013, Australians spent $13.5 billion online – a level that is equivalent to around 6.0% of traditional retail spending, up from 5.2% last year.

Omnichannel is the new buzzword in retailing and it could present huge opportunities for traditional bricks and mortar retailers, but reaping the rewards won't be easy, or cheap.

The Boston Consulting Group has released a study of the Internet economy in each of the G20 nations that puts Australia below the G20 average today and, NBN notwithstanding, forecasts that it will fall further behind by 2016.

There is a widening gap between the genders when it comes to their online retail habits, with Australian men now spending 46 per cent more online each month than Australian women.

A bus set off from Canberra this morning to take the message about online commerce to regional centres, in the hope that more businesses will start trading online. Not surprisingly the sponsors of the initiative, led by online payments outfit PayPal, also see it as a potentially lucrative opportunity to tap into fresh markets.

Australian retailers need to step up their online sales and marketing activities if they don't want to miss out on even more of the burgeoning online retail marketplace which is tipped to be worth $28 billion this year.

Listed retail support company Salmat will formally open its self-service internet portal targeted at small business owners and tradespeople in 6-8 weeks' time, which will allow them to create promotional flyers - probably postcard sized - that will be delivered by the company's army of 18,000 'contract walkers' to letterboxes in the SMEs' catchment area.