Revealed: Why our SMEs are laggards in adopting eCommerce - Business news, business advice and information for Australian SMEs | SmartCompany

Craig Reardon from the e Eteam writes on Smartcompany.com.au in response to the Sensis eBusiness repot recently published

• Only 54% of small business (1-20 staff) have a website at all
• 28% of small business do not intend to have a website
• Around 10% of Oz retailers sell online
• 96% have broadband connection
  

Download the Sensis report here:

Craig Cites technophobia as one of the main reasons business has not adopted the web. It's an interesting take on the topic and in my opinion partly true.

I guess the core thing about the web, no matter what business you are in really leads to the question of search. You may be a barber or an auto mechanic who feels that there is no place for your business on the web. WRONG. With increased usage of the internet for quick lookup of information, and the web going mobile as more Smartphones go into use, search is becoming more important for users in our ever hectic lives. So if the barber or motor mechanic does not have at least a well indexed page with contact details, what they do etc, they are out of the loop for a customer seeking their service, yet as with anything there will always be sceptics.

Read Craig's article here:

Revealed: Why our SMEs are laggards in adopting eCommerce - Business news, business advice and information for Australian SMEs | SmartCompany

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Another great article and more statistics for Australian Retailers who are starting to sit up and take notice about online as another channel.

It is assumed that half of Americans will shop online for Christmas presents this year.

Read the article here:

Multichannel retailing: all you need to know about e-tail

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Internet Retailing 2009 Post Event

http://www.screenevents.co.uk/IR09_PostEvent/pdf/MCRBrochure%2028.09.pdfRoyal Mail, Digital Proceedings Sponsor for the InternetRetailing conference in the UK, has published this gem of information entitled:Royal Mails 2009 home shopping and multi-channel retailing trends report. Download

• It's interesting to note that 48% OF UK shoppers buy from sites abroad.
• 67% of buyers cite security concerns when buying unknown brands or using unknown sites.
• There is also an ongoing trend that buying online means bargains are to be had.
• 63% of shoppers used online catalogues to inform or buy from
• 4% of 16-34 year olds use just bricks and mortar stores to buy goods and services compared to 27% over 55 years old
• Some buyers would consider buying carbon offsets for the convenience of online shopping ... and many more gems. Have a peak at the document by clicking on the image below.

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Online Christmas Bargains | ninemsn video

Have a look at this ACA - Current Affair clip on online shopping from a  buyers perspective. It also  features promotional  commentary from Paul Greenberg (DealsDirect.com.au), Gabby Liebovich (CatchoftheDay.com.au)  and Johanthan Zilberman (Bshare.com.au). Any free publicity is good publicity for these brands and is worth a fortune in advertising value, and probably features in their promotional  and PR agenda's each year.

Online Christmas Bargains | ninemsn video

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McAfee warns about '12 Scams of Christmas' | Safe and Secure - CNET News

During the pre Christmas rush amidst all the excitement leading to Christmas consumers forget that this is also a ripe time for scammers and rip off artists. Although focused on the US market, the implications are the same for Australian consumers and Online Retailers.

Click on the link below

McAfee warns about '12 Scams of Christmas' | Safe and Secure - CNET News

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Digital Marketing and Media Summit

On Monday 16 November, as brand sponsors for the Digital Marketing and Media Summit we attended the event (see pictures HERE), looking forward to a day of interaction between client side and agency side marketers and to get a feel for the state of the market in digital marketing.

We expected client side marketers to have little interest in our presence at the summit as our relevance to them is insignificant unless they are involved in selling online (which was the exception at this event) however we were somewhat disappointed by the lack of interest by agency side marketers who attended. As we represent the online retailing industry we couldn't understand why agency side marketers who would want online retailers in their portfolio, were not that interested in what we did or who we represent.

Once again this probably highlighted the challenges that online retailing still faces in Australia. The Summit which represented some of the more reputable agencies certainly demonstrated that we have a looong way to go to achieve the standards set by the UK and the USA.

I also somehow got the impression from this summit that just as traditional bricks and mortar retailers don't get online, it seems that some of the agencies are traditional agencies claiming they know online and digital, but they only know parts of it. There was also no focus on search at all which we were surprised about!

Teresa Sperti, one of Internet Retailing's writers who also attended on the day made some interesting assertions which I agree with, so instead of repeating many of my thoughts, please read Teresa's posting here at Digital Marketing Lab Blog

Regards
Mark

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Search Engine Usage and Trends in Australia - Statistics & Figures 2009 |SEO Sydney Blog | Search Engine Optimisation News & Jobs in Australia

Search Engine Room (www.searchengineroom.com.au)  had their annual conference today, there are already some nice blogposts on the event. Apologies to those who expected to meet up with me I just couldn't make it.

There is a great post from SEOSydney blog on the current state of search engine use in Australia

Search Engine Usage and Trends in Australia - Statistics & Figures 2009 |SEO Sydney Blog | Search Engine Optimisation News & Jobs in Australia

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Outsourcing SEO – Yes or No? | Search Engine Journal

Outsourcing SEO – Yes or No? | Search Engine Journal

A great article about SEO and the challenges and mistakes you could make if outsourcing to a foreign country due to language differences.

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