Following the success of last year’s inaugural Online Retailer Expo and Conference, the event will again be held at the Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre this year over four days, from July 6-9.
Online Retailer event director Mark Harvey said the phenomenal feedback and accomplishments from last year’s event were a clear indication that the Australian market has a large appetite for an event devoted to helping retailers build their e-commerce channel and sell online.
“As the first major business forum for the internet retailing and e-commerce industry in Australia, we received over 3000 registrations, which led Online Retailer to debut as the second largest online retailing event in the world,” said Harvey.
The 2010 event has been bolstered with the inclusion of an extra day, more international speakers, sessions, peer-to-peer roundtables, networking events and exhibitors. The main conference will be held over two days and features over 50 education sessions across six themed learning tracks. A new one-day pre-conference intensive focused on search and email marketing has also been added to the overall program.
The expo hall will showcase the latest e-commerce technology and e-retailing solutions, and provide retailers with a venue to compare, evaluate and discuss their needs with leading e-commerce and digital marketing vendors.
Another addition is the launch of the Online Retail Industry Awards (ORIA), an initiative to recognise and reward excellence in e-commerce retailing.
“For experienced online retailers or for those just breaking into to the world of e-commerce, Online Retailer 2010 will offer retail executives an unparalleled learning experience and the chance to leverage the collective knowledge of the e-retailing community,” said Harvey.
According to Forrester Research, Australian online spending is expected to grow to $32 billion by 2012 – a fact that has encouraged the retail community to become more focused on building and growing their e-commerce channels and businesses.
The Australian Payments Clearing Association (APCA) has found that almost 50 per cent of our country’s total online spend is directed towards international purchases.
“Australian consumers are voting with their wallets when it comes to shopping online,” said Harvey.
“However, it’s unfortunate that the current lack of local big brand retailers selling online is forcing shoppers to buy from overseas competitors,” he said. “We are some years behind the US and UK markets, when there is no reason why we should be.”