Though revenue has continued to rise steadily as more Australians get on to the Internet and commit their credit card numbers to cyberspace, even the most successful online retailers, trading in the most popular sectors of the business, do not expect black ink on their bottom lines for at least another year, and perhaps two. Getting seen among the billions of Internet pages is a major problem, even for the big players. Yahoo Australia's chief executive, Peter Crowe, says online shopping in Australia is on a strong growth curve. We bring merchants to one location and attract an audience to that portal. We integrate all the merchant databases so there is a centralised search function.
Consumers can find what they want irrespective of the merchant, or go to the name they want.
In Australia, he said, online shoppers were more often men, though the number of women shoppers was growing. Most US online shoppers were in the 18-36 age category, he said. Many shopped either from the office or outside business hours because heavy work commitments made online shopping more convenient. Reluctance to give credit card numbers over the Internet is still the biggest single impediment to online shopping, but seems to be declining. Statistics show the Internet is now safer from fraud than traditional shops.