Specialist financial IT firm, Dedication Group, has been chosen by RCG Corporation to manage the IT integration of its global, franchised sports shoe retailer, The Athlete's Foot, for the launch of its e-commerce store.

The Australian arm of wireless music systems vendor, Sonos, has boosted its Aussies sale team as it looks to further lift its brand presence with retailers across Australia next year.

This week and in the lead up to Christmas, Australians are expected to go on an online shopping spree in a big way, with predictions that a piece of women’s clothing will be sold every 6 seconds, a piece of fashion jewellery sold every 12 seconds, a pair of women’s shoes every 40 seconds and a watch will be sold every 46 seconds, helping to take Australia’s online commerce revenues to $30 billion by the end of the year.

A surge in online retailing is driving a massive investment in technology by Australian retailers as they face the need for enhanced website features, superior business management tools, and closely integrated systems.

Worldwide mobile payments to merchants for physical goods will treble from a gross $60 billion forecast this year to exceed $170 billion by 2015, with researchers finding that the initial growth in payments was fuelled by a dramatic upsurge in retail apps in the wake of the consumer smartphone explosion.

Xangati and TrackITOnline have partnered to secure a contract with retailer, Target Australia, for deployment of Xangati’s infrastructure performance management solution.

Wholesale aggregation services vendor, ispONE, is looking to expand its presence in the rapidly growing mobile virtual network operator’ (MVNO) market in Australia, appointing a new head of sales of its dedicated mobile division.

Australians are world leaders when it comes to frequency of purchases made on the Internet, with a survey showing we buy online at least once a week.

CRM outsourcers need to enhance their offerings to be able to take full advantage of the potential business opportunities in the retail sector, as forecasts predict an increase of 30 percent in the number of contact centre agents servicing the industry by 2016.

In Australia retailers are facing tough times as consumers keep their money in their pockets, and with new challenges posed for traditional ‘bricks and mortar’ retailers by the dramatic shift to purchasing by consumers of all manner of goods and services from overseas, online retailers. But some tips for using technology to help are at hand.