The soul of online retailing in Australia - internetretailing.com.au. Get serious about selling online!

Running an online business more often than not involves trying to automate and save costs. The online world is generally a very competitive one so any edge you can get is a good one. When a business is shipping 10 orders a day, making an extra $1 per order in profit starts to add up!

Usually, your largest cost as a business is staff, or staff time. When calculated per hour of effort, staff are expensive. In Australia and other developed countries, taking on a new staff member is a big decision as the cost is high and that staff member will really have to assist in growing the business or at the very least, perform well enough to save time and effort for you, so you can focus on growing your business.

International labour has been used for many years now for telesales, IT support, and general customer support for many industries. And this is becoming prevalent in online retail businesses worldwide too. Some of Australia's largest and highest profile retailers use some international services and labour.

So, what about your own online business?

Internet Retailing 101 -  Everything and more you need to know about ecommerce and selling online in Australia.

Perspectives on Australian ecommerce By John DeBrincat, InternetRetailing's guest expert and advisor on eCommerce and IT systems infrastructure for eCommerce.

Costs & Issues Selling Online

On one side of this debate is the traditionalist that measure effective retail based on foot traffic through the store. On the other side are the proponents of selling online with consumer facing systems.

 Online Retail in Australia – what’s held us back (and why it’s about to explode)

by Jon Bovard

 Online retail was a $130 billion USD industry last year in the US.

Moreover the industry has consistently grown in the order of 21-26% yearly since 2002. It is only in the last 12 months that US eCommerce growth has been seen to flatten out.

Why is Australia behind?

Buying Online

Australia is seriously behind the rest of the world in online retailing according to new research by The Leading edge, Australia’s foremost insights consultancy. The report based on a survey of 1,215 Australians found the amount of people actively buying online has declined and those who aren’t buying already have no intention to start anytime soon. Whilst some may blame Australia’s lack of broadband functionality, the research shows the real reason for the decrease is traditional retailers standing in the way of their own success in the online retail environment.