Australian consumers are researching online, with Smartphones and tablets set to play a key role this year in how get consumers get access to pricing and product information in Australia claims Salmat a leading Australian eMarketing Company.They said that in the last year of 2010 that searches via a Smartphone increased 1,516% after the Company launched a Lassoo catalogue search applications for Android, Apple and Windows devices. Paul Marshall of Salmat said that 20011 were set to be “The year of the Smartphone and Tablet”.
At a press launch today in Sydney the Company that is still giving out paper press kits and presentations despite claiming to be an eMarketing Company said that more than 5.6 million consumers accessed their site last year to get catalogue information.
They said that research showed that consumers preferred Australian web sites over overseas sites but due to the lack of sites local retailer were set to miss out on billions in sales because they had poor web sites or no web sites at all.
In 2010 43% of consumer purchases were via an overseas web site according to ACMA data presented at the Salmat briefing.. They said that 210 was a “big year” for online shopping in Australia with $24B in sales. They said that this was 2% of the total market.
They predicted that online sales were set to grow to $34B. Their numbers are disputed by accounting group Ferrier Hodgson who said that online sales will climb to 8% of all sales.
The Company said that both male and female were pre shopping online and that the 25 to 55 was more likely to research online prior to shopping.
Salmat claimed that Australians would shop at local retail sites if they were available. They said that 24% wanted to support local industries. 23% mistrusted overseas web sites, 14% said it was cheaper to support a local site after taking into account shipping costs.
Marshall said that Australian retailers could well miss out on $10 Billion in revenue as a result of “no web site or a poor web site”.
The Company who recently cut a deal with a European online applications Company to offer web site development and eMarketing platform in Australia is hyping the market in an effort to drive retailers to use Salmat services.
