Turning hits

Turning hits into sales

Australia is among the world leaders in Internet access - only Sweden, Canada and the United States have greater access.

Worldwide it has only taken four years for the Internet to reach 50 million users. This compares to 36 years for radio, 13 years for TV and 16 years for personal computers.

It is expected that in just over two years time worldwide sales using the Internet will generate more than $1 trillion. In Australia it is expected that these e-commerce transactions will top $14 billion by 2003.

It is not uncommon for small businesses to feel apprehensive about using e-commerce.

People often worry about alienating existing customers and the challenges of new technology without thinking of the benefits:

• regional businesses can overcome the tyranny of distance
• reduced costs associated with marketing, order management, billing and supply chain management
• better business to business operations (inventories, shipping, reporting, sales transactions and customer support)
• global advertising of their products and services at lower costs.

The department assists Queensland businesses to get "on-line" through:

• e-commerce training for medium sized businesses in regional Queensland through a series of workshops and seminars.
• employing nine IT specialists in the metropolitan and coastal areas of the State, to assist business making the transition to e-commerce.