Online sales in Australia are nothing new, but figures released by Myer indicate that even the big brand stores are starting to get real traction. Could this the dawning of ubiquitous online aussie retail?
The Australian reports on Myer’s financial results; for those who like pure numbers they managed $3.159 billion of sales, down five percent, apparently. Of more online interest, its online business, responsible for a comparatively small five million dollars worth of sales, is apparently growing at a rate of knots; the Australian quotes an ABC Insiders program where Myer chief executive Bernie Brookes (in reference to the online operation) stated that
It’s happened very quickly and we’re tripling the sales just about every week”
Online retail certainly isn’t a new phenomenon; arguably without it, Ruslan Kogan would still be working at Accenture, after all. Then again, with reference to Kogan, he proudly tweeted after last week’s announcement of Kogan undertaking grey market imports that
www.kogan.com.au/ has done over $1M of sales in the last 36 hours”
So clearly Myer has some work to do. Still, it’s long annoyed me that the kinds of online retail offered overseas — most notably in Europe and the US — haven’t been replicated to quite the same level in the Australian market. If the big retailers start doing more — and promoting more — it can only be good for the online Australian marketplace, and thus good for us as consumers.[The Australian]
Image: Lachlan