Jon how important do you consider the correlation between broadband uptake and "buying online"? Whilst its not the only driver, its surely an important one.

I've observed a monumental shift towards shopping online in the UK in the last 12- 24 months. It seems a tipping point was reached and in the circles I move in, most people have purchased and to a degree regularly purchase online.

To my knowledge broadband adoption in Australia is around 20% however offerings are still expensive and slow compared to the US or UK. The specific demographic groups I feel "spend more online" may still be limited to dialup connectivity at home.

Here's a quote from a KPMG research paper on Australia's Broadband strategy:

Against such a dynamic backdrop, it matters that Australia has a national
broadband strategy but no targets or firm implementation plan as yet. It matters
that, according to the Australian Telecommunications Users Group (ATUG), the
entry level retail broadband plan in Canada is a little cheaper yet offers at least
six times the speed and 30 times the free monthly download capacity of its
Australian equivalent. More than anything, it matters that Australia does not have
a long-term plan towards establishing national infrastructure that will support
higher bandwidth broadband

As an Australian, I can provide a few anecdotes (but no hard data) that might give some insight:

* Not everyone has "caught on" to the net here yet. I know some people who installed it at home, "didn't like it" and had it disconnected. Most of them have since installed it again, but are the type of users who only use it to send one or two emails a month.

* There have been some high-profile fraud cases here. I know friends who used Internet cafes for their Internet Banking - and of course, their bank details were stolen by the installed spyware. An organized crime syndicate targeted many of the cafes in the city.

* Not all the main internet brands are well known - everyone knows Google, but not everyone has heard of Amazon. That's probably because Amazon doesn't have a local presence, like it does in the UK. A local branch of Amazon could do a lot to drive adoption. Waiting weeks for orders to come from the US takes too long.

* eBay.com.au is growing in popularity. Friends often ask me how to sell things there - but I don't know, because I've never used it. However, "The Quokka" is equally well known - it's a classifieds publication that has a limited online presence.

* Paypal has only just opened an Australian office here. It's only been possible to have a Paypal account in Australian currency for a couple of months now.

* Broadband accounts here are typically around 256K or 512K, often with limited download quota.

Hopefully that will generate some ideas that you can use.

I think it directly relates to the factors you've highlighted below.

It's also interesting to note however that the key global ecommerce players like eBay & in industries like IT & travel are seeing similar online success in Australia V's US & UK. I think it leads to your points below however that show if you don't the economies of scale & the back end supply chain sorted you can't deliver the type of customer experience you need to make customers continue to buy online. 

Australia also falls behind in the area of fulfilment etc due to the immature market in south asia & China which Australia relies heavily on.

The biggest factor which everyone has touched on is the lack of sufficient broadband brought on by our Gov. run ISP - Telstra! Given the success in the UK with their '5 year broadband plan' I can't believe Australia isn't following suit. It's a real shame! 

Maybe we could put a petition together!

Cheers
Chris

On 21:28:22 19 April 2006 MarkQuinn-Newall wrote:

Jon,

Do not know much about Australia especially.......however

Four key generic factors: Any one of which can ignite e-commerce in a particular geographic marketplace:

1. Prior to internet being invented, the existence of a substantial catalogue industry within a geographical market.
Hence providing a bedrock of customers and their retailers who already familiar with “buying without touch” & home delivery issues.

2. The availability of deregulation / broadband within a geographical market
This will provide customers with a much better online experience, at a price point which is friendly to mass market adoption.

3. Scale of individual market size, making economics of entering market place more attractive. It is much easier to enter into a market place which has economic scale which will drive overall volumes and this is a prime reason why the USA rolls out new business models so quickly across a very large homogeneous market opportunity for any new business.

4. Presence of multiple fulfillment / carrier options to be able to drive the “last mile” or in Oz case the last several miles for B2C service.
This is tied to point one above, if there is already an extensive culture of buying via catalogues, then there has to already be in place networks to delivery the product, (albeit normally the old style “28 day delivery” of the offline catalogue industry not being very appealing to “I want it now online buyers”.

regards

Mark

I am curious to what the drivers are in pushing (or pulling) people from offline to online, and why these drivers apply in the US and UK but seem to be missing in Oz

Welcome comments

cheers
jon