Online shopping booming

THE allure of shopping centres does not appeal to every Christmas shopper. Some prefer the peace of buying gifts at home, and they are a growing breed.

According to the latest Sensis business survey one in four Australians will do some Christmas shopping on the internet this year, a remarkable statistic that has plenty of online business owners smiling.

Annual online spending is set to top $13 billion this year, with internet shoppers spending an average $2500 each.

And with the prevalence of online stores, combined with the increasingly busy lives for consumers, Christmas is becoming a boom period for internet-based businesses, as it always has for their traditional retail colleagues.

One crew that have been overwhelmed with the online Christmas rush are Sydney identical twins Jonathan and Anthony Bass.

The 27-year-old pair set up Dinosaur Deals six years ago as university students, using eBay to sell mobile phones to fund a few beers at the pub every Friday night.

They have become one of eBay's number one re-sellers in Australia, boasting an extensive range of products, a monthly turnover of several hundred thousand dollars and a customer base pushing 100,000.

During the pre-Christmas rush, sales on their website increase a massive 40 per cent.

Jonathan said the business imports the majority of products from overseas and sells them for up to 40 per cent cheaper than shopping centre retailers because their rent is significantly lower.

He believes online shopping will increase rapidly in the coming years, particularly leading up to Christmas.

"There is no question about it. In November it really picks up and our figures are about 40 per cent higher than other times of the year," he said.

"For the first two weeks of December our sales are about 70 per cent up on previous months. It certainly is the way the world is moving.

"People are sick and tired of battling for a park at a Westfield and fighting the crowd. This way they can sit in their PJs in front of their computer at a time convenient to them and do their shopping.

"There are also significant savings to be had. We don't pay Westfield rent and we run a simple operation, so we pass on the savings to our customers."