Online has almost six percent of total retail spend

That's in Australia. And over 70 percent of online purchases by Australians were with Australian-based retailers. The figures are from the National Australia Bank online retail sales index, reported by the Australian (paywalled). These figures echo figures I mentioned in a blogpost a couple of weeks ago about Ahmed Fahour, the Australia Post CEO, and his company's online push. Fahour said in the story linked there:

"Three out of four items bought by Australians online are purchased from domestic websites and it's mainly small and medium-sized businesses that are the engine room of our domestic e-commerce market."

And Fahour says the research predicts double-digit annual growth in Australian online spending through to 2020.

While most people will be happy buying things online, it might come as a surprise to some to learn that so much of our spending goes to Australian businesses. Amazon might be mighty but the little guys are profiting too. In that first story linked to above, we learn that Michael Notman who owns Brisbane clothing retail store Ultra Suite sees 10 percent of all sales are online "but about 60 per cent of buyers in the shops had researched online before they went in":

"Most people don't leave their house without looking at what they're going to buy online," he said. "The web is a retail tool to sell but also to allow people to research our products."

And online success is coming in unexpected places. In outback Queensland, Tony Titley of Charters Towers saw 28 per cent growth in domestic online sales last year at his western-style clothing shop.