UPS, which had always concentrated on parcels, picked up something of a head start in Internet retail deliveries. But neither company, nor their competitors, was prepared for the tidal wave of online shopping last Christmas. Much customer unhappiness, as well as courier panic, was generated. Their response has been rapid. FedEx, UPS and DHL have all set up web sites through which a customer can track the whereabouts of a consignment.
Travel is one of the online success stories in Australia and overseas.
The company has recorded more than 160,000 customers, up 300 per cent from April 1999. According to the Gartner Group, the value of the global Internet travel market will increase by 600 per cent by the end of 2001. Soon it will more often be sold digitally over the Internet than bought through a real-world shop, and probably at least as often from a foreign country as Australia. CD recorders are getting cheaper and hard-drive capacity on home computers much larger, both driving consumers to do it themselves. The main impediment to growth of the trade is the relatively slow progress in Australia in the provision of high-speed telecommunications, but as that comes life will get harder for record distributors and retailers.