Australian Online Sales Continue To Grow And Grow

The Early Years of E-Commerce in Australia

I remember six short years ago whilst delivering a marketing presentation for the NSW Chamber of Commerce during the Think Big Seminar, I was asked about the percentage of sales in Australia that at the time were online as a percentage of overall total sales. The answer for which was less than one percentage point.

Rationale

The reasons for this slow adoption of the online purchasing rate in the early days of e-commerce remain speculative but it's a reasonable bet that the slow embrace was largely a consequence of some well publicised, horror stories of customers being defrauded while trying to make online purchases.
This publicity certainly instilled a sense of fear and caution in most Australians for many continues to the current day.

Current Levels of Adoption

However in more recent times with a raising awareness of the protection afforded by SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) certificates and especially SSL's with full extended validation as used by larger businesses such as financial institutions, more people have gradually made the transition to online purchasing. Currently in Australia around 7% of total sales are made online  highlighting the more than 700% growth over the last 6 years demonstrating the increased levels of confidence in the protective measures around the protective systems employed.

Additional Challenges to Increasing Adoption Levels

As fully illustrated by the recent data showcased in the Marketing Sherpa, E-Commerce Benchmark Study 2014, there are several perceived issues that businesses are still grappling with regardless of the size of the business in question.

Issues such as technology, fulfillment, access to capital and availability of appropriately trained, quality human resources, being amongst the expansive list generated by the study data.

Despite these ongoing challenges the data also reflects that specialist online retailers continue to grow at an even faster rate than hybrid businesses that offer both retail and online purchasing options.  Perhaps having a singular focus with a niche positioning allows these businesses to more fully appreciate the needs of their customers and ultimately present a more fully rounded solution thereby attracting a faster growth rate.

Suffice to say the percentage of online sales will surely continue to increase in coming years with a simple imperative for all businesses to follow and that being to make the e-commerce option available and user friendly with intuitive customer interfaces that continue to deliver a convenient and rewarding customer experience as a valid option to offline options.

To learn more about e-commerce and all things digital please also join me for any of the free Digital Enterprise Program (DEP) workshops with the added bonus of a free four hour coaching session for your business simply by attending any on eof the seven workshops. Simply go the link below and register your interest now.

 http://www.vecci.org.au/business-solutions/digital-enterprise-program/workshops

So until next time, good luck and good marketing.
Regards,
Daniele.

While online sales have been growing at around 20-30% annually, the overall market share was still only around 5-7% of the overall market in early 2013. Many users cite the reasons of availability, convenience and pricing as well as delivery options as some of the reasons for purchasing online. - See more at: http://www.budde.com.au/Research/Australia-Digital-Economy-Online-Retailing-Trends-and-Statistics.html#sthash.yzp1DiQu.dpuf

While online sales have been growing at around 20-30% annually, the overall market share was still only around 5-7% of the overall market in early 2013. Many users cite the reasons of availability, convenience and pricing as well as delivery options as some of the reasons for purchasing online. - See more at: http://www.budde.com.au/Research/Australia-Digital-Economy-Online-Retailing-Trends-and-Statistics.html#sthash.yzp1DiQu.dpuf