Prosperous December for #online retail

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Smaller chains and online stores enjoyed a more prosperous Christmas trading period, as reported by the Australian Financial Review.

Many online retailers reported spectacular growth during the festive period. The chief executive of online book retailer Booktopia, Tony Nash, said December sales increased by about 55 per cent on the previous year to $2.2 million, excluding goods and services tax. “We sent 120,000 books out from our warehouse in December,” Mr Nash said. “We were getting about 900 new customers per day on some of the big days.” Booktopia, which is one month away from celebrating its eighth year in operation, took on a further 1600 square metres of warehouse space in the last quarter of 2011.

Furthermore, growth was not confined to online retailers. The chief executive of fast-food chain Mad Mex, Clovis Young, said average sales growth for the seven stores in operation since before December 2010 was up 26 per cent. The chain has opened a further eight stores in the past 12 months. Although Mad Mex’s Castle Towers outlet in Sydney was “basically flat”, outlets in Victoria enjoyed year-on- year growth of up to 50 per cent, Mr Young said.

You can read the full article on Australian Financial Review online here.

In summary, the key points reported on were:

• It was a prosperous December for some, if not all, Australian retailers
• Smaller outlets and online operators were the big winners
• Many online companies are looking to major revenue gains in 2011-12

The Retail Show Australia takes place in Sydney on 20-21 March 2012. It looks at all these issues plus strategy and innovation for world-class retail brands. You can find out more about this here.