Australia has been ranked the 10th best e-commerce market in the world by global management consulting firm AT Kearney, following a boost to the country’s online sales figures of 9% in 2014. The 2015 Global Retail e-Commerce Index places Australia behind the United States, China and the UK, but ahead of Canada, Hong Kong and Sweden in terms of its e-commerce presence. Australia last year ranked 9th but has slipped a place this year as European countries made significant progress in the last 12 months. Australia’s strongest performing e-commerce categories were department and variety stores (33% of sales), homewares and appliances (17%), and groceries and liquor (15%). In a global context, online sales grew 20% worldwide in 2014, to nearly $1.4 trillion.

New communication and software developments are making it increasingly possible for retailers to offer a seamless shopping experience using all the available shopping channels- mobile devices, computers, bricks-and-mortar, television, radio, direct mail, catalogues, and so on. The concept of a Sharing Economy is gaining momentum. New developments are following in the footsteps of those entrepreneurs who created sites where people share their houses and car spaces.

Mobile shopping is one of the hottest topics, and the m-commerce market is growing at a staggering rate. While this boom will of course taper off eventually, m-commerce will remain one of the leading growth areas for some years, driven by the younger generation and its mobile-centric lifestyle.

In early 2015, the press was filled with reports that the physical book market had made a comeback and that e-books had had their day. But according to statistical data, while sales of print books rose slightly in 2014, e-book sales rose even more, further increasing their share of the overall book market.

Advertising and Marketing in the Digital Age

The advertising scene has undergone radical change and is still changing. With profits down between 5% and 10% on an annual basis, the performance of the traditional advertising market is under constant pressure. Data analytics is exposing the weakness of these traditional advertising business models and, like all of the other sectors affected by the digital economy, this means that these business models need to change.
Social media companies are becoming increasingly important website publishers. Compared to commercial broadcasters, these companies have one important difference – they have valuable data on their consumers, which they are monetizing in a big way. Although consumers are happy to share data with companies operating in the digital economy, they are unhappiest when these companies disrespect their wishes for privacy.

Online Retailing

While online sales have been growing at around 20-30% annually, the overall market share was still under 10% of the overall market in early 2015. Many users cite the reasons of availability, convenience and pricing as well as delivery options as some of the reasons for purchasing online. There are many choices from offshore e-tailors offering low cost deliveries, with onshore businesses that operate a retail web presence providing service and communication at a local level. Low start-up costs and minimal barriers to entry have seen many enterprises including bricks and mortar stores and online only stores successfully operating in the direct sales to consumer’s market.

E-Banking

Australians are one of the world’s biggest users of online banking. EFT (electronic funds transfer) is very popular in Australia, and the BPAY consortium, owned by Australia’s Big Four banks, is widely used to pay bills. However, the more consumer-driven developments such as m-banking took longer to emerge. After decades of procrastination, and ultimately pushed by development from companies such as Apple and Google, the era of m-payments has now taken off in a big way, with all four banks now facing breakneck growth in m-payments.