Retailers are pushing into online and e-commerce with a vengeance, but it seems doomsday predictions for bricks and mortar stores might be unfounded.
Research from data analytics firm Quantium shows that while online sales are continuing to increase, growth is still slow compared to the double digit returns seen during the height of the online boom in 2011-12.
Research commissed for NAB's August Online Retail Sale Index found that year-on-year growth of online sales registered at 8.3 per cent in August, slower than the July year-on-year figures which reached 9.0 per cent.
The report noted that the online growth rate “has been slowing gradually” with the first 12 months of the index, ending January 2011, recording growth of 31.8 per cent, but with growth for the 12 months to January 2014 only recording 12.8 per cent.
In dollar terms, it means Australians spent $15.7 billion online in the 12 months to August 2014, which only amounts to 6.6 per cent of the spending at traditional retailers.
And while traditional retailers are still being outpaced by the online boom, ABS data shows postive sales for the sector - a 0.3 per cent increase in sales growth, comparing June with July and 5.7 per cent higher growth than a year ago.
It follows the release of Capgemini's Digital Shopper Relevancy Report which found that on a global scale, physical stores remained favoured by digital shoppers, with 72 per cent saying a bricks and mortor location was “favoured” or “very favoured.”
The report found that only 14 per cent of respondants said that physical store locations had become “less important” to them. Next favoured in the results were online locations at 67 per cent.
Importantly, Capgemini found that social media rates as 'low importance' for shoppers, with a continuing decline since the channel peaked in 2012. The research said that while social remains important in the consumer journey, particularl in creating awarness, its signficance in purchasing rates is nearly as low as call centres.
It is sobering research for companies like Twitter and Facebook who have been pushing to integrate e-commerce into platforms.
Twitter recently announced it was introducing a 'Buy' button that advertisers will be able to embed into tweets so that people can buy directly from Twitter. Facebook launched a similar buy button back in July.
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