Roundup: Aussies migrate to online opportunities

Roundup: Aussies migrate to online opportunities By ChristianEdwards

SYDNEY, July 14 (Xinhua) -- Underlining Australia's love affairwith the online omniverse, new research shows that Aussies aremigrating in greater numbers than ever to the world wide web, and inparticular to online shopping.

After attempting to thwart the Australian migration to onlineshopping, some of Australia's largest retailers, including HarveyNorman, have set up online retail platforms this year in response toa surge in buyers.

According to research published by the Australian Communicationsand Media Authority (ACMA), the total number of internetsubscriptions last year was up 17 percent while the average amountof data downloaded leapt a staggering 29 percent.

The surge in Australia's online migration reflects an equivalentburst in the power of the Australian dollar.

A survey by Macquarie Equities found that, the strong Australiandollar is continuing to shape shopping habits, showing a shifttowards online retailing as consumers seek the best deals.

The ACMA research will be provide further evidence fortraditional brick and mortar retailers that the future ofAustralia's economy must have a digital shadow or risk being leftbehind.

ACMA chairman Chris Chapman told Xinhua, "These increases reflectagain the ongoing digital boom in online social and economicactivity.. More and more Australians are going online to do theirshopping, banking and social networking."

Besides signs of Australia's weakening economy, local retailersare facing a revolution from the online shopping boom.

A Melbourne University report said Wednesday consumers were 20percent more trusting of online retailers than five years ago.

In fact, 15 million people aged 14 and over used the internet inDecember 2010, up from 14.2 million in December 2009. According to areport titled'The internet service market and Australians in theonline environment', 71 percent of internet users used the internetat least once a day, up 4 percentage points from a year earlier.

Australian Retailers Association (ARA) executive director RussellZimmerman told Xinhua the study was further evidence that Australianretailers faced a major crisis and needed to urgently respond toonline competition.

"Traditional bricks and mortar businesses that do not alreadyhave an online presence will be impacted by the surge in onlineshopping," he said.

Australians are engaging in greater numbers than ever with e-commerce opportunities.

The growth of online video and social networking are keepingAustralians online for longer durations than ever before and this isproviding experience and confidence that inevitably flows through toretailing opportunities.

The online auction site eBay is Australia's most popular site(attracting 4.24 million visitors), according to the ACMA research.

Social networking sites remained the busiest, with 8.4 millionaccessing these, compared with 7.4 million people for retail andauction websites in general, and 5.5 million people accessing videostreaming sites.

According to Chapman, "The rise in online activity isparticularly evident in the growing volume of data downloaded, aswell as the increased take-up of higher speed internet services,"

Over 12 months, individual users downloaded an average 18.8gigabytes of data, equivalent to approximately 120 hours of streamedvideo content. This was a 29 per cent increase from the Decemberquarter of 2009.