E-commerce activity: Business to Consumer (B2C) 3
While still relatively small compared to
traditional forms of transacting business,the
use
of online banking
and shopping by Australians has grown considerably.
Currently it is estimated that:
13% of adults paid bills or transferred funds
in the 3 months to November 2000
(an increase of 225%
since November 1999).
10% purchased or ordered goods or services
via the Internet (up 67% in the
same period).
Of the 361,000 employing businesses connected
to the Internet at June 2000:
36% used the Internet for banking;
28% used the Internet for selling related
activities; and
24% for procurement.
The value of Internet e-commerce in
$A 5.1 billion. Most
firms selling goods or services via the
Internet reported that
less than 5% of the value of their
sales/orders originated via the Internet.
Major findings from the NOIE
commissioned study E-commerce Across
which sought to
forecast the economic impacts of e-commerce to the year 2016, were:
level of output of
between 0.8 to 3.6 per cent by the year 2010, with national GDP
rising by 2.9 per cent.
30 out of the 57 regions can expect an
increase in regional output and employment
as a result of e-commerce.
Nationwide there is an expected increase in
employment. Around 24 regions will
experience increased output, but lose some
employment. This is a typical result
when an increase in labour
productivity reduces demand for labour in some areas.
Those regions that are broadly based with a
heavy presence of new service based
activities will do well with greater use of
e-commerce. Regions more dependent on
just a few key activities are vulnerable to an
overall contraction as a result of greater
use of e-commerce.
Most popular Portals
6
www.Ninemsn.com - Portal most visited site
www.bigpond.com - ISP portal Number 2 site
www.yahoo.com. - Search Engine
www.destore.com - Electronic retailer
www.looksmart.com - Search Engine
www.noie.gov.au - National Office for Information
Economy
www.myerdirect.com.au)- Departmental
store and catalog retailer.
www.sold.com.au - Online auction
Books 27%
Computer equipment 19%
Clothing and Shoes 14%
Music 13%
Payment by telephone has long been popular,
as is the use of ATM/EFTPOS terminals.
The logical extension of these activities,
m-commerce (transactions via mobile devices),
is also under way in Australia. Mobile phone
providers offer WAP-based text
communications to their subscribers and
currently estimate that 9-10% of mobile
owners use data services.