When Times Get Tough, Online Retailers Get Going

LUXURY retailers may be anxious about an impending economic downturn, but online department stores and discount shopping sites expect to hit a sweet spot in tough times.

Online Push Leaves Harvey Norman Cold

GERRY HARVEY, chairman of Harvey Norman, has warned that his retail group would not invest heavily in an e-commerce sales channel for many years, citing concerns about online profitability and "cultural" differences in shopping between Australian consumers and the e-retailing boom under way in North America and Europe.

City Divided As A Symbol Laid To Rest

IN THE age of reality TV, anybody can be a celebrity. And in the age of modern electronics, anybody can film one - never mind the manners. Just ask Kim Nguyen, who sat prayerfully through a funeral service that was foreign to her while ordinary people she had never met tried to snap her with still or video cameras held in the palms of their hands.

Fantasies To Reality

Electronics companies are now hawking

Road Links

Anticipating problems and planning are the keys to staying online while travelling, writes Helen Bradley.

Learning Blocks Of The Future

The Learning Federation is developing online lessons, writes Jenny Sinclair.

Amazon Flexes Its Retailing Muscles

Miracles do happen. Amazon.com, the world's biggest and most expensive bookseller, has finally made a profit after burning nearly $US3 billion ($A5.78 billion) since it set up as an online-only superstore in 1997.

Democrat Slams Howard's It Way

The Democrats' IT spokesman: online and on the attack over government policy.

Companies Find Answers With Self-service Systems

Less human interference in online queries means cost savings and better use of time, writes David Braue.

New Techno Strategy For Over 60s Online

There are now more than 250,000 seniors in NSW connected to the Internet.

News Plunges Into Realestate.com.au

A week after News Corp shut down its loss-making electronics e-tailer buy.com Australia, Rupert Murdoch's media empire has announced it will invest $10.75 million in realestate.com.au, giving it a 44.2 per cent stake in the group. It is believed John Fairfax Holdings, the owner of The Age, came c

News Takes A Bath As Buy.com Closes

Mr Rupert Murdoch's patchy record on Internet investments suffered another blow yesterday when Australian online retail site buy.com.au closed its doors, retrenching most of its 40 staff. The decision to close the business was made by the US-based parent, buy.com Inc, which has recently been exp

E-tailers Hold Their Breaths For Santa

The online sites which promised so much last December say now they are ready to deliver. Will the tech wreck ruin Christmas? That is the question being asked by e-tailers as they gear up for their big two months of the year a period when they can expect up to 40 per cent of their revenues. An

Electronics Firms In The Box Seat For E-business: Survey

The financial services industry may be best suited to the Internet, but it is the electronics sector that is in prime position to boom on the back of the new economy in the near term. According to a KPMG global survey of more than 370 executives representing the financial services, communication

Old Foes Join Forces In Bid To Survive

Online retailers have traditionally shunned real-world bricks-and-mortar businesses but, as David Braue discovered, attitudes are changing and new alliances are being formed. BELEAGUERED online retailers, once casually dismissive of the old-world bricks-and-mortar business model, are now eating t

Store A Real Buzz

`BUZZ' zones have been included in the new Dick Smith Electronics store relocated in Kotara to the Kotara Homemaker Centre on Northcott Drive. The latest technology is on display in the zones and customers can engage in a `hand-on' experience. Customers can also surf the Internet for themselve

New Ebay Platform To Target Small Business

The online auction site eBay Australia, which is owned by Kerry Packer's ecorp and the United States-parent eBay, launched an exchange platform for the small business sector yesterday. The new Internet marketplace, called Business Exchange, will target businesses with fewer than 100 employees, re

Amazon Faces Facts And Fires 150

Amazon.com will lay off 150 employees in its first retrenchment since the company was formed, just five days before it is expected to report further losses in its fourth quarter. The Internet's largest retailer, which began selling online in 1995, would not give reasons for cutting 2 per cent of

Techno-paradise

What's new in the year 2000? Andrew Heasley reports. LAS Vegas, with its dazzling lights, was a fitting venue for the Consumer Electronics Show 2000, a showcase of technological innovations that threatened to eclipse the neon madness outdoors. The stars of the show, which was held earlier this

In The End It's The People Who Count

IF the last century ended up marked by excess in almost every field, the one which has just begun already seems likely to eclipse it by a long way. The merger between America Online and Time Warner which had the cyber world and the sharemarkets all a-twitter last week involves numbers and custome