Retail sales down, Online sales up

As the economy heads south and consumers slow spending at the cash register, it would seem that consumers still want to buy things. Simple Net's founder and director Kevin Paterson has reported that his client's e-stores are doing well in this difficult environment.

"Our e-commerce clients across a number of industries, in particular the cosmetics and fragrance industry, have reported to us strong sales over the past few months"

"This is not good news for the retailers as they are not just losing sales but they may be also loosing a loyal customer." Mr Paterson added; "once a customer goes through the online shopping experience and it works well, easy to check out and the goods arrive in a reasonable time, they will become very loyal to the online store."

"Consumers always want to buy no matter the state of the economy and when things are a little bit tight then they look for bargains and the web can offer this."

"I believe we have only just scratched the surface of online sales and if you look towards the booming US and UK online markets, which are more sophisticated than in Australia, you can see where our future lies"