eCommerce is growing worldwide, and according to recent estimates from eMarketer online sales hit USD1 trillion in 2012 – which represented a year on year growth of over 21%. And what does this mean for Australia? The numbers for AU are equally as encouraging with ecommerce sales growing to $37.1 billion in 2013 (up from $33 billion in 2012)*.
To support this growth and explore the drivers and opportunities for the region, a new conference and expo was run in Melbourne last week: The Symantec Web Security Solutions Team attended the inaugural eCommerce Conference and Expo in Melbourne, Victoria. The event consisted of a packed conference track and a large expo show floor, and was well attended from a wide ranging group of people from enterprise and technology solution providers to SMB and start-up businesses. What they all had in common was a hunger for the latest news and best practices in the world of eCommerce. The Expo had an international speaker line-up from companies such as eBags, who highlighted that eCommerce accounts for 10% of the B2C market with 90% of purchases still going through traditional bricks and mortar merchants. Other speakers included representatives from such notable businesses as Harvey Norman, Ozbo, Sur La Table, Ice.com and Patagonia. They all shared some of the concepts that had made their experience of selling online so successful, or in some cases, quite challenging. These case studies were just what the participants were eager to hear, as this type of invaluable insight is often never talked about outside a company.
There were over 400 paid delegates and approximately 1,500 visitors to the expo hall. This is the second largest show of its type in Australia (second to Online Retailer in Sydney 20-21 August) and one that I enjoyed attending. Meeting companies who are passionate about creating the best online experience for their customers is something that we know a lot about here at Symantec. Building and demonstrating trust has a positive impact on your bottom line, and we focused on this in my presentation at the show, entitled ‘Six Things That Can Kill Your Website’ where I shared the latest research from the Internet Security Threat Report as well as six threats that can significantly impact your site and online trust. My presentation from the show is available online here.
We’ll be continuing on the theme of trust and ecommerce success at the Online Retailer event in Sydney from 20-21 August 2013, so please join us for what is predicted to be an even bigger and busier show!
*Source http://internetretailingau.blogspot.ie/2012/08/australian-ecommerce-statistics.html