Australian online retailers report sales growth: Study

Early adapters that took to the internet ahead of the rest have seen revenue grow over the past year, but laggards to online selling had gone backwards.

Sales were up around 5 per cent in the last year for small and medium businesses that sold online for at least a year, a study by Melbourne-headquartered Australian market research company Roy Morgan reveals.

However, sales were down 4 per cent at firms that took to selling online more recently - or that still refuse to see the potential.

The boom for online retailers means they were able to lure extra customers that the traditional retailer had not, and according to Australian Retailers Association (ARA) executive director Russell Zimmerman, the awareness had been raised due to consumers moving to online spaces and retailers getting that now.

They were also trying to attract the consumer who would traditionally not come to their door as they were not in that locality, or entice them to come to the (shopfront), he said.

The vast majority of small Australian businesses, had an online presence and only a third of those surveyed had been selling on the internet since July last year.

And that was mainly due to the fact that they lacked the technology or the resources to support online sales, according to the study.