Australia is on the verge of an expansive third wave in e-commerce which will see online shopping double in the next 12 months, according to the 2001 e-Retail Report.
While only 10 per cent of Australians currently shop online this is expected to jump to 25 per cent by the end of next year.
Released by Pinpoint Research Services, author of the report Tim Walsh said the $340 million spent online in Australia in the past year will jump to $500 million by the end of 2002.
Walsh said food and groceries is the fastest growing category and will grow by 42 per cent to $62 million followed by travel up 33 per cent to $75.9 million.
"Those categories will be the star performers in 2002," he said.
Walsh admitted that the late 1990s was a period of inflated expectations for online sales and advertising revenue and expectations of instant results.
B2C e-commerce, he said, is entering a new, more intelligient phase.
"Now is the time to dust off those e-business plans that were filed away with the dotcom collapse and for Australian retailers to reconsider the market," he said.
The report is based on a series of over 1000 Web-based surveys completed by online shoppers in Australia in the past three months.