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If figures from eBay are to be believed, B2C ecommerce in Australia is worth around $13 billion dollars per annum, a figure that makes up a respectable 6 per cent of Australia's $233 billion annual retail sector. In the US by comparison, according to Jupiter Research, Americans bought goods and services worth about $200 billion from online retailers in 2007. And in the UK, according to silicon.com, online retail spending racked up $AUD10 billion in sales last month alone.
So one would assume that unless you are a highly inter-franchised retailer like Harvey Norman, selling online would make sense to increase your market share. As Chris Hitchen, managing director of Getprice noted in a recent interview, online stores can offer "greater convenience, larger inventories and better opportunities for customer retention than their physical brethren".
But, says Hitchen, many of Australia's retailers are missing the point when it comes to ecommerce. "A lot of the bigger retailers view online as competition instead of complimentary, which I think is a big mistake."
"When you take a look at what's happening in the UK for example", says Hitchen, "with stores like Curry's and Comet, these guys have set up a multi-channel online presence and they are selling huge amounts of technology-style goods."
