Posts Tagged ‘Australia’
Monday, March 17th, 2014
Photo credit; Miquel C. on Flickr
Australian businesses are missing out on cost efficiency and environmental benefits as they lag behind the US and the UK in the adoption of electronic signature solutions, research from Adobe has found.
The research, which surveyed over 100 customers in Australia in January, found only 1.5% of Australian businesses are using e-signature solutions versus 12% of US and 4.5% of UK companies.
Adobe’s vice president of Adobe EchoSign Jon Perera said the majority of respondents blame the government for the lack of uptake.
“Seventy-six percent of Australians said they think the government needs to do more to drive the adoption of these signatures,” he said.
“In other words, until they see government mainstream it and really use it internally we won’t get the ball rolling down the hill or get the momentum we’d like to see.”
Perera said businesses are recommending for all Commonwealth departments and agencies to adopt e-signatures by implementing them on government forms, to show the public it is “perfectly legal, accepted, and safe”.
To read more about this story, click here.
Tags: Adobe, Australia, business, online
Posted in Australia, business, E-mail & the internet, online business | No Comments »
Friday, March 14th, 2014
Photo credit; Bradley Gordon on Flickr
Amy Ta from Sydney just marked her one year anniversary as a business owner.
“I really wanted this year to be different,” she says. “I wanted to do something that I loved.”
A fan of buying and selling online, Ta’s New Year’s resolution for 2013 was to create her online store, Seventh Tree Soaps. She now produces handmade soaps for customers worldwide.
“One third of my business is in the United Arab Emirates,” Ta says.
Agents for brick and mortar stores are also flocking to get a piece of the quality products she produces.
“People want products that are unique and well crafted,” she says.
Now her full-time job, Ta’s online store has performed so well she is considering expansion.
“I am already thinking of putting on staff to help,” Ta says. “It’s amazing. For now I have unofficial help from my husband.”
To read more about this story, click here.
Tags: Australia, business, online, Seventh Tree Soaps, Sydney
Posted in Australia, business, E-mail & the internet, internet usage, online business, Online Sales, online shopping, online stores, selling online, Success story | No Comments »
Wednesday, March 12th, 2014
Photo credit; David Pacey on Flickr
VentureCrowd, an Australian online equity based crowdfunding platform, has officially opened for business in the country.
The VentureCrowd platform allows investors to receive equity in high growth-potential startups, making them shareholders in the startup ompanies.
It opened Feb. 20 with over 200 registered investors and 36 startups which have been pre-screened by the best Australian accelerators, incubators, angel groups and university programs.
Artesian Venture Partners, one of Australia’s leading early stage venture capital firms, developed the platform.
According to Artesian managing partner Jeremy Colless, there are a very large number of sophisticated investors in Australia who have not previously invested in the startup space.
“The wholesale investor market in Australia is large with 207,000 wealthy individuals in Australia sitting on $US625 billion ($684 billion) worth of assets,” Says Colless. “Until now there have been major barriers to entry for investors in startups. An investor either had to have a large amount of money and time available to screen and review each potential startup investment personally, or had to commit as much as $250,000 to a venture capital fund to qualify as a limited partner.”
To read more about this story, click here.
Tags: Australia, business, crowdfunding, investing, online, VentureCrowd
Posted in Australia, business, Crowd funding, E-mail & the internet, internet usage, investment, online business, social networking, Success story | No Comments »
Monday, March 10th, 2014
Photo credit; Marc Falardeau on Flickr
Tourism Australia has introduced the free Australian Tourism Booking Widget for Australian tourism businesses to help them manage their bookings online.
The Booking Widget is designed to support businesses in the accommodation, attractions, events and tours sectors.
It’s easy to install and can be used to:
- take bookings
- manage your rates
- update availability
- accept payments.
All you need to do is:
- Register online
on the Tourism Australia website.
- Follow the step by step instructions to add the Booking Widget to your website or Facebook business page.
To read more about this story, click here.
Tags: Australia, booking, business, online, tourism, Tourism Australia
Posted in Australia, business, E-mail & the internet, Federal Government, internet usage, online business, Online Sales, online shopping, online stores | No Comments »
Friday, March 7th, 2014
Photo credit; Christian Haugen on Flickr
Kylie Jackson, from Melbourne, didn’t plan on opening an online business, but was coerced by friends into establishing Wallfry three years ago to sell her artwork for kids rooms. Now she is fending off agents from brick and mortar shops who want her products in their stores.
“The key for my product is being able to personalise the colours,” she says. “It’s a unique service I offer that I don’t want to lose.”
The demand on some online businesses mean that some have to open physical stores, like the father and daughter team of Peter and Krystal Ruchs, who opened Winestains Barossa, selling items produced from recycled wine barrels.
“We had so many people wanting to view the products,” says Krystal. “This was the next logical step. We didn’t think there would be such demand. And we only sell within Australia”.
To read more about this story, click here.
Tags: Australia, business, online, Wallfry, Winestains Barossa
Posted in Australia, business, E-mail & the internet, internet usage, online business, Online Sales, online shopping, online stores, selling online | No Comments »
Wednesday, March 5th, 2014
Photo credit; SEOPlanter on Flickr
Online marketing guru Paul Neihus from Can Do Training says it’s imperative for Australian businesses to keep up with the latest online business trends.
Recently, 78 local businesses attended an Online Essentials seminar held by The Morning Bulletin to hear Neihus, from Can Do Training, talk about winning the battle between clicks and bricks, and using the internet to drive customers their way.
With $14 billion in online sales in Australia last year alone, online marketing has changed the way companies do business.
Chemist Warehouse Rockhampton owner, Paul Arnold said he was part of the biggest online pharmacy in the country, but his interest was in growing a local presence.
“Today [Feb. 11] brought home the importance of linking with local customers and realising that a lot of people do their research online, but still shop locally,” he said.
“We need to do everything we can to build that relationship so they want to shop here we’re not just entitled to it.”
To read more on this story, click here.
Tags: Australia, business, Can Do Training, online, Online Essentials Seminar, Paul Neihus, The Morning Bulletin
Posted in Australia, business, E-mail & the internet, internet usage, online business, Online Sales, online shopping, online stores, selling online | No Comments »
Monday, March 3rd, 2014
Photo credit; Tatiana Gerus on Flickr
When Jane Cay bought an existing retail business in the small New South Wales town of Cooma in 2004, it was an eclectic mix of saddlery, Akubra hats and women’s fashion and employed five staff.
After removing the outfitters merchandise and honing in on women’s fashion, the business began to grow solidly at a rate of 10-20% per year. And in 2006, given the growth in online business, Cay made the decision to take Birdsnest online.
“We quickly realised that we weren’t in the business of selling dresses — we were in the business of solving a woman’s wardrobe dilemma,” Cay says.
She did a lot of online research to get her website up and running and develop the brand, focusing on giving online customers the same high standard of customer service that the in-store customers received.
Cay’s thorough planning and commitment to the website and customer service has paid off: since the website started, the business has grown to more than 100 team members, the website records five million page views or 500,000 visits every month, and it sells to people all over Australia and the world.
To read more about this story, click here.
Tags: Australia, Birdsnest, business, Cooma, New South Wales, online
Posted in Australia, business, E-mail & the internet, internet usage, online business, Online Sales, online shopping, online stores, selling online, Success story | No Comments »
Friday, February 28th, 2014
Online success has led to talks of expansion for Anna Blandford and Gareth Meney of Able and Game.
Blandford, from Melbourne, has been selling cards and stationary from Able and Game for four years and proudly names Nepal as a country she sells to.
“We now wholesale to the UK, US and New Zealand,” she said. “We are always looking at expansion and have recently attended trade shows in the UK.”
The reach of the internet allows her and other Australian small business owners online to count the entire world as their market.
To read more about this story, click here.
Tags: Able and Game, Australia, business, cards, homemade, online
Posted in Australia, business, E-mail & the internet, internet usage, online business, Online Sales, online shopping, online stores, selling online, Success story | No Comments »
Wednesday, February 26th, 2014
Photo credit; Tup Wanders on Flickr
Global business trends affect all businesses. Here are eight trends that could affect your Australian online business in 2014, according to startupsmart.com.au.
Privacy laws
The onus is now on business owners to ensure they know what their service providers are doing with respect to keeping and sharing your customers and business data both on and offshore.
Cookies policies and active notifications
Notification requirements are being reviewed and regulation is making more business owners obtain active consents where certain customer information is collected and customer behavior is recorded. This means you need to know when you need your customer to actively agree to your terms rather than just post them on your website. It will also impact what your business collects, why you collect it and what you do with it.
Copyright reform
Make sure you know where your content and images come from. This is becoming an increasingly monitored (and complained about) issue with the increase in “sharing” in social media.
New cyber security laws
The European Union (EU) and the United States (US) are trying to work on new policies to address cyber crime. The EU is working on reforms to get member countries to agree to have compulsory reporting of cyber attack crimes to national authorities. They want to have an arrangement that countries will give up nationals who commit such crimes against EU or US but this is meeting some resistance.
Data collection
There is and will be more regulation in relation to tracking systems, particularly those permitted by large tech companies. Opting out of tracking will be more and more difficult as larger corporates will look to improve their ability to collect personal data for advertising databases.
What does this mean for you? It will be harder to protect yourself and your customers’ information online. You are responsible for protecting your customer’s information so your security systems and those of your service provider will need to be robust particularly where international providers or customers are involved.
More Local Regulation for Online Businesses
Australian regulators are hitting out as business use of the internet grows. Everything from tax collection, legislation compliance, consumer protection and privacy are all on the radar among some of the other legislative changes that are continuing to be examined in 2014. You can be sure that tax revenue will be top of the agenda!
Online businesses to be targeted for taxes in other countries
With growth in sales at bricks-and-mortar shops shrinking, and purchasing on the internet growing daily, governments are looking to find ways to tap into the sales revenue. By 2017 global mobile commerce transactions will exceed US$3.2 trillion up from $1.5 trillion in 2013.
Be aware of the tax reform proposals where your online business has customers. You don’t want to be caught out.
Crowdfunding
This new innovation is virtually unregulated so far in Australia and is growing faster than any other funding source for businesses. It’s making entry costs for individuals who want or have started businesses more feasible — it’s becoming a global way of accessing funding.
Watch out for this new way that businesses are finding investors to help them grow.
To read more on this story, click here.
Tags: 2014, Australia, business, online, trends
Posted in Australia, business, E-mail & the internet, online business, Online Sales, online shopping, online stores, selling online | No Comments »
Monday, February 24th, 2014
Photo credit; Paul Joseph on Flickr
Here’s yet another reason to open an online business in Australia; your fellow Aussies will buy from you.
The second annual Westpac Australia Day report found 90% of Australians are true to their local businesses and about 49% will buy from a small business to help strengthen the nation’s economy.
The results found Australians are most loyal to their grocery stores (39%), pharmacies (37%), restaurants (21%), bakeries and butchers (both 20%).
Westpac’s general manager of retail banking, Gai McGrath said Australians were well aware of the important role small businesses play within their local communities.
“Australians can see the connection between supporting your local businesses and the health of the local economy and community,” she said.
The survey also found more than 58% of Australians believed small business was the backbone of the nation’s economy.
To read more on this story, click here.
Tags: Australia, business, local, support
Posted in Australia, business | No Comments »
