Ignore online and watch them leave

As we all watched more stores close in Australia's consumer electronics retailing industry last week, there was another spectacle happening elsewhere, setting the agenda for future retailing.

This was the Online Retailing Conference held at Sydney's Exhibition and Convention Centre and attended by more than 3,000. The most important take out from that event are the critical facts that online retail is expected to grow by 40 % by 2012 and is forecast to reach $A33.8 billion by 2012 up from $A24 billion last year.

While Australians remain amongst the fastest adopters of new gadgets, new media and new ways of shopping, the majority of retailers in the local industry which delivers the hardware behind these experiences are stuck, almost trancelike in another era. Almost a decade ago Retravision badged one of its conferences, "The Information Superhighway'. At the time, the group's management at least had the foresight to present these future trends to its members.

Yet nothing changed, and instead of converting their businesses to viable online models when it became apparent that the bricks and mortar operations were terminal, many of those members at that conference have either just closed their stores or sold to larger competitors. But Retravision is just an example, with the exception of Appliances Online and Big Brown Box, the will to move into the future of online retailing by the industry's leaders has been either weak or completely lacking.

This attitude has been deadly in some areas, such as the photographic category where online sales have eaten into at least 40% of traditional sales. Now the industry is at a crossroads, and with the impending arrival of Bunnings and Woolworths a dedicated CE offers, existing businesses need to become much smarter and, do it quickly.

with thanks to Connected Online