Australian business opportunities: 10,000 miles and one click away

Australia is a very long way from Britain – 23 hours flying time. That can sometimes put small businesses off exploring the big opportunities in this important market. But many companies are exporting very successfully to Australia without leaving home, thanks to booming e-commerce sales. 15.7 million Australians are active online and Australia’s online retail spending totalled over $13 billion last year.

Lots of British products and companies have strong brand recognition in Australia. And thanks to the strong Aussie dollar, British goods are highly competitive, even after adding shipping costs.

Personal imports below A$1,000 (£650) don’t generally attract customs duties. Some companies export “passively” through their websites, whilst others are more pro-active, taking steps to adapt for Australian customers, for example by simple features like showing prices in Australian dollars and other currencies.

It’s also important to remember that Australian seasons are the opposite to the UK, so winter goods won’t sell so well in the Aussie summer.

Marks & Spencer are currently offering free shipping to Australia. And Australia now accounts for 13% of online fashion retailer ASOS’s sales – with an Australian customer ordering something from them every 7 seconds. Major retailer Top Shop decided to open a number of flagship stores in Australia after finding they were selling so much here through their UK website.

And now we’re also using the internet to make it easier for potential exporters to learn more about the Australian market.

Starting this week, our UK Trade & Investment team are running a new series of webinars covering a range of business sectors like energy, security, biotech and food and drink. This is an opportunity to hear UKTI specialists and private sector experts discussing the opportunities and how best to access them.

You can watch their presentations and then ask questions which they will respond to in real time. Our previous two webinar programmes attracted nearly 450 British companies.

Find out more about the current webinar series. If you would like to request webinars on other topics let us know at ukinsydney@fco.gov.uk.