Posts Tagged ‘online’

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businesses.com.au opens up domain name to subdomain names for small and medium businesses

Tuesday, July 23rd, 2013

Small and medium sized businesses in Australia or from overseas can now adopt a sub-domain name under www.businesses.com.au.

Australian domain name rules outlined by the .au Domain Administration prevent anyone but Australian businesses or companies from owning .com.au or .net.au domains.

But the opening up of business.com.au to subdomain names means that overseas businesses who want to do business in Australia can now have a local domain name.

Local private people, contractors, business owners and incorporated or unincorporated businesses can also have an online presence on the premium domain for a low weekly rental.

Greg Rogers, from Faxts Media which runs Businesses.com.au, said that applications are now open anyone in Australia or overseas to apply for a Businesses.com.au domain.

“AuDA rules are strict. An Australian business name or ABN is an essential requirement to own a .com.au domain name,” Rogers said. “I checked with AuDA myself and there are no restrictions on sub domains if the main site is owned by Australians”

“Netregistry owns a .com domain www.au.com. They have been selling and hosting websites as www.sample.au.com which are sub domains of .au.com, for years. There are 1000′s of them. Businesses.com.au is Australian and perfect for any business.”

“Businesses.com.au will allocate sub domains on a first come first served basis. We will not allow trademarks to be used unless the applicant has permission or is the holder of the trademark.”

To apply for a domain name with businesses.com.au, email ceo@businesses.com.au.

To read more on this story, click here.

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Posted in Australia, business, domain names, Expansion to Australia, internet usage, online business, Online Sales, online shopping, online stores, selling online | No Comments »

Kent & Lime makes shopping stress free for blokes

Wednesday, July 17th, 2013

Online men’s clothing retailer Kent & Lime have taken the stress out of clothes shopping for its customers.

Instead of choosing their own clothes, Kent & Lime customers are asked about their dress sense by a style advisor who then selects clothes for them from a variety of brands. The clothes are posted out and upon receiving them the customer has 10 days to try them on and make up his mind. What he likes he pays for, and what he doesn’t he simply returns at no extra cost.

Will Rogers, who founded Kent & Lime along with Nick Gonios, said the idea behind Kent & Lime was to provide a genuine personal service that helps male shoppers cope with the often overwhelming choice online.

“We thought there must be a way of reducing all that noise that is out there and give people a place to go that cuts through all the choice. That’s what really sparked the idea,”  Rogers says.

The business is also trying to capitalise on the poor service many shoppers lament in bricks-and-mortar stores.

To read more on this story, click here.

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Posted in Australia, business, online business, Online Sales, online shopping, online stores, Success story | No Comments »

Australian businesses playing catch up to Australian consumers when it comes to online business

Tuesday, July 16th, 2013

Australian consumers are giving a clear indication of what they want from businesses and now it’s up to those businesses to respond.

At a recent retail summit held by the Australian Information Industry Association and Australian Retailers Association, industry experts said Australian businesses need to increase their presence online to keep up with the customers they are trying to cater to.

The latest Roy Morgan State of the Nation report found internet shopping has experience more than a decade of year-on-year growth and now over 50% of Australians shop online, with total spending equating to $24.3 billion online for the 12 months to March this year.

This figure was an increase of 11.9% from March 2012 and outstripped total retail sales growth for the same period by 8.5%.

However, despite the continual increase in consumers shopping online, the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics figures show only 43% of Australian businesses have a web presence. Those figures reflect especially poorly on small businesses, with only one-third of micro businesses online.

With eCommerce quickly becoming the favoured way of shopping for many consumers, Google’s retail industry leader Ross McDonald says Australian businesses are playing catch-up.

“Australian businesses are years behind Australian consumers,” McDonald says. “Measure your business from what your next-door neighbour, brother, mother, nieces and nephews expect of today’s retailer.”

To read more on this story, click here.

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Posted in Australia, business, internet usage, online business, Online Sales, online shopping, online stores | No Comments »

Australian businesses hope that falling Australian dollar helps them to lure back locals

Tuesday, July 16th, 2013

Australian businesses owners are turning a hopeful eye toward the falling Australian dollar.

The Australian currency has dropped by 15% against the US dollar since April and looks like it will continue to fall. This has Australian businesses hopeful that Australians will start spending their Australian dollars in Australia, whether at bricks and mortar shops in the country, or at Australian websites.

When the Australian dollar was at parity with the American dollar earlier this year, it meant that buying online at offshore websites was a lot cheaper for Australians, as the prices from overseas were typically much lower than in Australia. But now that the dollar has fallen, it should, in theory, close the price gap between Australian retailers and websites from overseas.

However, shopping online at foreign websites has to do with more than just price alone, analysts have noted.

Commonwealth Bank of Australia retail analyst Andrew McLennan said shoppers also like to have more options.

”There is no doubt that one of the key factors that gets consumers spending online internationally is the relative pricing, but it’s also the great range available, which is most often far broader internationally than is available in Australia,” McLennan said.

”There are brands you just can’t get in Australia, there are ranges you simply can’t get in Australia.”

In addition to that, Australians can often end up receiving purchases from overseas faster than they can when they buy them right in their own back yard.

”A lot of these overseas online players have far better developed online capabilities,” McLennan said. ”So you end up getting products that you purchased overseas quicker than you can get it from domestic online retailers.”

And the last rotten cherry on top for Australian businesses is that according to recent research from Ernst & Young, many Australians simply don’t care where they make their purchases from, saying it doesn’t matter to them where a website is based, as long as they get their money’s worth.

To read more on this story, click here.

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Posted in Australia, business, internet usage, online business, Online Sales, online shopping, online stores, selling online | No Comments »

Online shoppers expect service comparable to in-store experience, research reveals

Saturday, July 13th, 2013

Australian online businesses that think of their cyber stores as automatic vending machines need to start rethinking how they conduct business over the internet, a new survey has found.

Customers now expect to be able to get help immediately when they need it and will abandon an online transaction if that help isn’t timely.

The survey, conducted by marketing group Loudhouse on behalf of LivePerson, a provider of customer management software, found 87% of shoppers said they need some form of help during an online shopping transaction and 25% of Australian respondents to the survey expect help immediately when requested.

The main reasons for abandoning a purchase include:

  • unexpected costs at 69%
  • lack of information at 59%
  • navigation difficulties at 52%
  • not being able to find answers to questions at 44%.
  • difficulty in getting help on a website at 36%.

Out of the 1000 respondents, 79% said they prioritise getting their issue resolved quickly, and 55% want that done in a single interaction — 62% want a problem resolved within a five-minute timeframe, and 54% would give up immediately or only seek help once.

Dustin Dean, vice president of Asia-Pacific at LivePerson, said Australian online businesses should start offering the same type of service that is offered in more traditional retail stores, which includes investing in Live Chat options where customers can get instant access to staff to help with questions and resolve issues.

“I think you have to offer the richness and the depth of the experience of the storefront — especially given access to information now is just so rapid,” Dean says. “This is not simply about making a one-time purchase. You need to create relationships with customers and create an experience that enhances the shopping.”

To read more on this story, click here.

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Posted in Australia, business, online business, Online Sales, online shopping, online stores, selling online, technology | No Comments »

Scoopon gets hit with accusations of cheating

Thursday, July 11th, 2013

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has levied accusations against online coupon website Scoopon in Federal Court. 

The ACCC has alleged that Scoopon engaged in misleading and deceptive conduct and made false and misleading representations to businesses and consumers.

The ACCC alleges that Scoopon:

  • misled consumers regarding their ability to redeem vouchers, their refund rights and the price of goods advertised in relation to some of its deals;
  • that Scoopon told businesses there was no cost or risk involved in running a deal with Scoopon, when a fee was in fact payable to the site, and;
  • that Scoopon misled businesses by claiming that between 20 and 30% of vouchers would not be redeemed, when there was no reasonable basis for this representation.

The ACCC is seeking declarations, injunctions, community service orders, pecuniary penalties and costs in the Scoopon case.

To read more on this story, click here.

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Posted in Australia, business, cybercrime, Federal Government, fine, online business, Online Sales, online stores | No Comments »

Online business matures in Australia in 2013

Tuesday, July 9th, 2013

2013, although only half over, has been heralded as the year when online retailing in Australia grew up. Even people who were decrying online retailing just a few years ago have come to realize that it’s an essential part of a business plan now and businesses that started online are growing in leaps and bounds.

Telsyte senior research manager Sam Yip says, it’s been a “very big year of change”.

“There have been players early in the space that have dropped out, and a lot of bricks-and-mortar retailers are doing more.”

“We’re not hearing any more Gerry Harvey stories; everyone acknowledges that this is the channel to be operating in.”

Even Australia Post is acknowledging the change, altering its operations to accommodate the influx of parcel shipments it now has to deal with because of the online retail boom.

Now that Australia has embraced online retailing, Yip says, platforms like mobile are up next.

But first, the actual logistics of online selling have to be perfected.

“The other big challenge here is around delivery,” Yip says. “In the past year we’ve seen horror stories of where logistics have gone wrong, with people getting wrong orders all the time.”

“There’s a need to really refine that back-end logistics functionality.”

Considering traffic data from Experian, revenue, and noteworthy achievements (and excluding local divisions of global companies, such as Apple and Amazon, along with auction sites such as eBay and Gumtree), the top 20 online retailers of 2013, in no particular order, are:

  • Kogan
  • Milan Direct
  • Catch of the Day
  • Booktopia
  • JB Hi-Fi
  • Officeworks
  • Specialty Fashion
  • Big W
  • BrandsExclusive
  • The Iconic
  • Shoes of Prey
  • DealsDirect
  • Get Wines Direct
  • Groupon
  • Ozsale
  • StyleTread
  • Dick Smith
  • Appliances Online
  • EB Games
  • Westfield

To read more about this story, click here.

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Posted in Australia, business, internet usage, online business, Online Sales, online shopping, online stores, selling online, Success story | No Comments »

Online store lets Aussies buy American without the huge markup (also rakes in money for mum)

Friday, July 5th, 2013

Started in 2007 by Dr Carolina Tillett in Bendigo, Price USA is a site that lets Australians purchase things from the USA helping them to save a lot of money and allowing them to purchase items only available in the USA.

Working with partners in the USA, Price USA simply asks customers to fill out an order form on the website indicating what they want and from where. The US-based agents then buy the goods, package them up and ship them straight to the customer’s door.

Tillett charges the buyer 5 per cent of the total order price to handle the transaction and is raking in close to six figures every year from the comfort of her own home with relatively few business costs.

For more on this story, click here or here.

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Posted in Australia, business, innovation, internet usage, online business, Online Sales, online shopping, online stores, selling online, Success story, web-based | No Comments »

Online discount party supply store brings in big bucks for stay at home mum

Thursday, July 4th, 2013

When stay at home mum Kristy decided to have friends purchase children’s party supplies and ship them to Australia so she could re-sell them in the country, she was only expecting to take in maybe an extra $50 per week.

Well, she’s getting a lot more than that, bringing in a tidy six-figure profit every year.

Starting out with an eBay story, she eventually switched to selling from her own website www.discountpartysupplies.com.au and started pulling in a quarter of a million dollars, all from her spare bedroom and all without borrowing a single cent.

To read more about this story, click here.

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Posted in Australia, business, children, eBay, innovation, internet usage, online business, Online Sales, online stores, selling online, Success story | No Comments »

Australia is world leader in online startups

Wednesday, July 3rd, 2013

Australia is leading the way across the globe for new online businesses.

The amount of internet start-ups increased 200% from 2010 to 2012, outpacing both the United States and Britain by four times. However, that doesn’t mean that these new businesses are automatically booming. Many of them incur losses in the first few years of operating until they gain momentum and start making profit.

To read more about this story, click here.

 

 

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Posted in Australia, business, online business, Online Sales, online stores | No Comments »

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