Aussie retailers are notably slow in joining e-tail revolution, as over half of us are now buying from the web, analysts warn.
![]() Click to enlarge |
56% of Aussies now buy something online every month, as sales look set to double to $33 billion values by 2015 – a rise from $16.9bn just two years ago.
That’s what research out today showed from from Forrester Research, noting “the high street has entered online retail but not yet changed it,” referring to the likes of David Jones and Myer whose websites still account for just single digit percentages of total sales.
According to one of the authors of the report, which looked at online retail environment in Australia, “pure play online retailers,” the likes of Amazon and eBay were leading the way in digitial revolution while tradional bricks and mortar players were “shaky,” according to analyst David Noble.
However, electronic retailers like JB HiFi, Dick Smith have all made e-tailing part of its bread and butter, with JB’s enjoying 800K visitors to its site every week. And even old dog Harvey Norman is to send a full web trading site live soon.
UK clothes retailer ASOS is doing a booming trade Down Under, and is now its biggest market outside the UK, its International Director told a Sydney conference yesterday.
The retailer which offers free delivery on all apparel sold, fills one third of a cargo plane shipping goods to Oz every day – no mean feat for a company with no bricks a mortar presence here.
Asian retail players are also getting in on the act like Zozotown and Vancl, developing English speaking sites to attract international customers.