INDUSTRY TALK  People ask me lots of questions about my knowledge or what special skills I have that give me creative licence to write articles and opinions on the state of internet retailing in Australia. Well to tell you the truth I don't have any, and that's what my secret is. You see it's my ability to explore and ask questions about things I don't know about, or understand then group them together in some sort of logic (or illogic).
Read on

Marks reaction: Excellence and perfection are treated as synonomous, but are they really? This brief comment explores the difference between excellence and perfection in relation to the fast paced world of online retailing

Most people would tend to think that striving for excellence and striving for perfection both mean the same thing. Do they? I have been very privileged to have worked in quite a few different industries in my life, which has given me many life skills that are very valid in the frenetic online retailing and ecommerce world.
Read on

Marks reaction: Although published in Nov, Its always refreshing to see another report on the state of Online Retailing in Australia. The more reports out there the greater the opportunity to be able to compare and get a better understanding of where the industry is at, at the moment.

The Australian Communications and Media Authority has published its latest research report: E-commerce marketplace in Australia: Online Shopping. The report is their first look at the developing online shopping market from both a supplier and user perspective.
Read on

Marks reaction: An insiders take on life at Catchoftheday.com.au and after - A copy of an email sent out to the InternetRetailing.com.au database. The response was so overwhelming that we thought we would share it with the greater digital community. Feel free to respond.

I have been asked so many times recently what was it like working at Catch, what life is like after Catch/Scoopon, what are my plans etc. So, let me answer a few of these questions and share my exciting journey with you. For those of you that don t know me that well; up until recently I was Chief Operating Officer at the Catchoftheday group of companies. That s a large reason why internetretailing.com.au kind of slowed down in the past 18 months. I couldn t fit enough into my 8 day weeks and something has gotta give, know what I mean. Anyhow that s all changed and those of you following the website will notice that there are fresh articles and content popping up on the site rather regularly once again.
Read on

Marks reaction: Commentary on the all the media coverage relating to online retailing.

This week past is probably the most historic week for the online retailing industry in Australia. For years now there has been a plethora of expert commentary providing reasons why online retailing has failed, both from traditional retailers and from those in the industry or fringe to the industry. The infamous comment by Gerry Harvey that Online Retailing is a waste of time, followed by so called expert opinions that the country is too big, delivery logistics are too hard (anyone heard of Australia Post s eParcel service, an amazing service that will get a parcel to any address in Australia), the population is too small and so on, I could bore you with hundreds of pages of commentary from both sides, some true most just hypothesis. At this time in the background a few entrepreneurs were growing their email databases while offering incredible deals on their online stores. Some of the early adopter companies such as dailydeals.com.au, catchoftheday.com.au and Kogan.com.au understood online and the web, its democratisation and liberation for shoppers These companies pursued this segment vigorously to become some of the nations top online retailers.
Read on

Marks reaction: A topic that gets little attention in the online and digital space, mostly due to the lack of awareness about this. More articles like this will make people think about this a little more.

It is a general assumption that shopping online is good for the environment. The perception likely comes from the idea that buying something from your computer would be less harmful than getting in your car and driving to the shopping centre. While I do wish to make a case for one being more wasteful than the other, online shopping is much more harmful to our planet than our perceptions would let us think.
Read on