Warc, 21 August 2013
SYDNEY: Online retail spending in Australia is forecast to
reach $18bn this year and to grow 39% to $25bn by 2015, new research has said,
but with up to 50% of expenditure going to overseas sites, local retailers are
being urged to adopt an omnichannel strategy.
NetSuite, a provider of omnichannel commerce suites,
sponsored a study by the Australian Retailers Association and Frost &
Sullivan, the market research company (ARA). Some 219 retail managers were
questioned during July 2013 in order to ascertain their views.
Currently, more than half of Australia's 77,000 retail
businesses have a website, but only one third accept orders online and the
study said that, at 7% of total retail sales, online sales remained behind that
of comparable markets such as the US or UK where online now took 10% of all
retail sales.
"As Australian consumers become more confident with
online shopping, and as a greater number of retailers actively promote their
online offerings, the value of online retail sales is growing at double-digit
rates, suggesting that Australia still has room to grow," said Dougan.
But he warned that many brick and mortar retailers were
missing out and advised them to adopt a multi-channel approach. This, he said,
"can offer them many opportunities, such as lower operating costs, the
ability to reach new customer segments, the potential to broaden their product
range and the ability to operate with fewer geographic limitations".
With 30% of online shoppers in Australia using mobile
devices and two thirds using social media, these are channels that retailers
need to be present in to interact with consumers, the survey said.
Mark Troselj, NetSuite's managing director for APAC and
Japan, suggested that "a successful omnichannel strategy will be the key
to the survival of many Australian businesses in coming years" but
cautioned that such strategies could take time to develop.
One of the major problems faced is the lack of integration
between retailers' web front-end and back-end fulfilment systems – the study
found just 24% of Australian retailers with a web presence had software that
integrated web orders with the inventory management system.
Data sourced from PR Newswire; additional content by Warc
staff
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