Media
Release
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
Offline retail is a tale of woe, but online retailing is going from
strength-to-strength, with shopping online doubling in two years and
Forrester’s tipping continuing growth1. The news that Amazon is coming
to Australia by setting up a data centre for its web services business 2 and
actively assisting Australian retailers to sell on Amazon.com, good or bad news
for online sellers?
The Professional eBay and eCommerce Sellers Alliance (PeSA) predicts
that it is a little bit of both for Australian online retailers.
“Retail is really moving into a multi-channel phase, with more paths to
market representing more opportunity for online sellers. A new major
market-place like Amazon ensures the dominant player here, eBay, will be sure
to keep up their seller support services. All this is good news for online
retailers and competition.” Says Shaun O’Brien, PeSA Australia President.
“The challenges is that major market-places bring more international
sellers into the Australian market, most of which can sell at extremely
competitive prices” Continues O’Brien. “Yet Quantium.com.au report that only
25% of online sales are offshore, keeping 75% here. That’s a massive
opportunity for existing, and future, Australian online retailers.”
To ensure online retailers keep ahead of the game, PeSA run an annual
Internet Conference event. 2012 will be the sixth year of the event, with an
expected 600+ delegates.
There are over sixty content sessions, with keynote speakers from eBay,
PayPal and Australia Post, plus leading online Australia entrepreneurs
including:
- Ruslan Kogan – Founder
and CEO of Kogan.com.au and Australia’s wealthiest entrepreneur under 30.
- Gabby Leibovich –
Co-founder of Scoopon and Catch of the Day.
- Paul Greenberg –
Co-founder of DealsDirect.com.au
The PeSA Internet Conference runs May 31-June 2 at the Gold Coast
Convention Centre. Registrations for the 2.5 day event are only $495. A full
exhibition accompanies the Internet Conference.
For further information, a media pass to the event, or to arrange an
interview with Shaun O’Brien or Phil Leahy of PeSA, contact: Kimberly Palmer, Brazen Productions,
0403 937 347, kimberlyp@brazen.com.au
1. Source:
Forrester.com Report December 2011
2. Source: Australian
Financial Review, 21 January, 2012.