Online Shopping:Threat Or Opportunity

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Date: 01/07/2011

Are traditional bricks and mortar retail outlets on a cliff's edge as Australian consumers let their fingers do the shopping online? Quantium cuts through the hype to find out what's really happening in online sales right now

Have your clients embraced the big opportunities in online selling yet? Or maybe they're fearful that traditional retail stores will lose out as increasing numbers of consumers take to online shopping, ordering from the convenience of their computers. Whatever your take on online shopping - and Quantium has done some major research on what's happening in Australia - it's clear that you can't ignore the phenomenon. Simon Smith is director of Quantium Online andsays you'd be a brave operator not to have an online presence, even if you don't want to start selling online. Retailers should be aware, he says, that 50% of offline purchases are researched online first. But how fast is the online shopping movement really growing here? Quantium's survey of the purchasing habits of more than 2 million Australians reveals the true picture, who's doing it, which categories are the winners and where the threats exist for anyone in retail or associated businesses today.