Steven,
While Australia (and all or nearly all, other countries) lag behind the US in rate of adoption and the rate of usage of Ecommerce, the fact is, that is all it is - a lag - i.e. delay.
My view is that Australia lags the US by about 2 years. The major reason for this, IMO, is due to the lag in reduction of Internet connection and data transmission prices - we lag the US by about 18 months.
There isn't a greater reluctance to use Ecommerce sites - it's just a lag.
I have been involved in Ecommerce in Australia for 5 years and have always achieved good sales.
To be successful in Ecommerce, whether in Australia or elsewhere, requires hard, intelligent, sustained, effective work. This is no different to bricks and mortar businesses. Those that are unsuccessful blame the failure on "Australia wasn't ready" or on, "the low takeup of Ecommerce in Australia".
I have yet to see an example whethere either of those reasons were true. All cases I have examined, and I have examined quite a few, the problem has been at least one, but sometimes more than one, of the four success factors (hard, intelligent, sustained, effective work) were missing, often combined with a level of capital insufficient to achieve success.
So, if you have competitive products, go for it. But make no mistake, unless you are extraoridiariliy lucky (right product, right time etc.) instant riches won't occur - it will take years of hard graft, before you can claim success. However, by that time, you will have a rock solid business, worth quite a bit of money.
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