Sales of electrical and electronic goods at the retail level dropped 0.8pc in October, according to the latest figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
While Stats doesn’t go into the possible reasons for this, some observers believe would-be Aussie purchasers might have been holding off due to the expected arrival of US-based Amazon on the Australian scene.
Backing this view, the trend estimate for all household retail goods also fell 0.6pc in October. Perhaps just about everyone – not just IT buyers – have been hanging back hoping for better deals from the new Amazon Australia.
If so they may have been disappointed this week: initial figures from other services yesterday (see above) suggest that Amazon has announced its arrival with prices that were – initially at least – beaten in some cases by more established operators like JB Hi-Fi and Myer.