SYDNEY: Australian e-commerce is dominated by small to medium sized businesses which are growing fast and developing an international client base, according to a report.
While retail giants such as Myer and Harvey Norman have yet to build a significant online business, SMEs generated $161m in retail sales last year, research from Forrester Research found.
They often sell internationally and perform well against key metrics such as conversion rates when compared to their counterparts in the US.
Average conversion rates and average order value metrics are slightly higher while average return rates and cart abandonment rates are lower.
The report found that Australian online retailers are benefiting from lower levels of competition and customer expectation because the Australian e-commerce market is more under-developed than other markets such as the US. For example, RedBubble’s Australian customers are more loyal than its customers in the US, with far less shopping around.
On average, current Australian online retailers expect their sales to grow by 30% in the year ahead, outstripping
the 3% growth that the International Monetary Fund is predicting for Australia’s economy as a whole.
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