Australian Sporting Goods Association executive director Brad Kitschke says that while industry associations have been advocating for a tax neutral competitive playing field for Australian traders, there is still a need for retailers to engage in the online space and in e-tail.

He was speaking at the Engage in E-tail e-commerce seminar jointly hosted by Australian Retailers Association (ARA) and Australian Sporting Goods Association in Melbourne, which attracted more than 150 retailers.

Quantium director, Tony Davis, said Australian retailers were losing sales to overseas websites regardless of the strength of the AUD and warned online sales to overseas websites wouldn’t wane.
 
He said online shopping was an increasing tendency for consumers across all demographics and had moved beyond early adopters, but there was a number of purchasing patterns retailers should be aware of:

• More than 30 per cent of all book purchases are made online, making it the retail category with one of the highest online sales.
• For specialty retailers, including cycle and bike shops, most online transactions are made by people living far from bricks and mortar retail centres.
• Most online sales made on overseas websites are large dollar purchases (up to $1000). Smaller purchases  are less likely to be made on overseas websites. 
• People who shop online are more than three times likely to purchase furniture from a bricks and mortar store, suggesting the next big trend in online buying might be in furniture sales.

 ARA Executive Director Russell Zimmerman said the Engage in E-tail seminar was the first step in a series of events around other topics such a logistics and supply chain, m-commerce, social media and video in retail.
 
Engage in E-tail delegates also heard from Google head of retail, Ross McDonald; Deals Direct chairman, Paul Greenberg; Colmar Brunton MD, Steve Nuttall; The E Team MD, Craig Reardon; and Robelen Bajar from Marketing Angels.
 
A series of Engage in E-tail seminars is planned for roll out in 2011.