Retail Global 2019 was held on the sunny Gold Coast over three days. Andrew Waite and Adam Littlechild exhibited on behalf of Convert Digital, and here’s what they took out of the event:

1) Not enough retailers are diversifying with online stores

Despite e-commerce growth in double digits in Australia, many retailers are continuing to leverage only marketplaces such as eBay, Amazon etc. Retailers really need to diversify to reduce risk and increase margin by selling direct to consumer via their own online store on a platform like Shopify Plus, BigCommerce or Magento 2.

2) Buy now, pay later solutions are not slowing down

We are all aware the success of AfterPay, Openpay and zipPay, however there is a new player in the field called Payright. They are a white label service, enabling retailers to effectively have their own buy now, pay later solution in checkout.

3) Marketplaces continue to grow

With Amazon’s arrival 12 months ago, eBay going stronger than ever, Marketplacer growing exponentially and now the introduction of The Market by The Warehouse Group in NZ, marketplaces are not slowing down!

“

The number of Marketplace purchases grew by 31.2% year on year

2019 eCommerce Industry ReportAustralia Post

4) eCommerce is alive and well in Australia

eCommerce in Australia is growing rapidly, with online spend reaching 10% of total retail sales in 2018, taking its share to two percentage points higher than the previous year. Australians spent $27.5 billion buying goods online, an increase of 24.4% year on year

5) eCommerce doing their part for charity

The Retail Global Gala event saw outstanding generosity raising $100,000 for RetailROI!!! The Retail Orphan Initiative (Retail ROI) are an incredible cause raising awareness and providing real solutions for more than 400 million vulnerable children worldwide.

Take a listen to Power Retail’s wrap up;

Inside the Retail Global Gold Coast Conference 2019

References:

Australia Post eCommerce industry report, 2019
Online Physical Goods Index (produced by Quantium), March 2019