While the hype of yesteryear is definitely out of fashion, this silly season is shaping up to be much needed boost for e-tailers throughout Australia. Whereas twelve months ago most were looking for new customers, many are now selling to an established customer base.

And while the "bricks and mortar" backed e-tailers, such as Dymocks online are expecting traditional Christmas shopping patterns to be repeated online, pure e-tailers and auction sites are beginning to notice the emergence of new buying patterns.

Jane Morrison, marketing director at Ebay says the auction site gets a boost over the Christmas period as people go treasure hunting for their hard-to-buy-for friends and relatives.

"Because it is an auction site we never really know what will appear from one day to the next, it could be a Ferrari, or a possum-fir hat," Morrison said.

In the lead up to Christmas Ebay has included a themed Christmas page which sorts items according to their applicability to age group, gender and interests. However, Morrison expects the real rust to come after the Christmas period.

"After Christmas is the perfect time to pick up a bargain because people log on to sell the things they got for Christmas that they don't like," Morrison said.

Far from the scramble for sales, and hectic Christmas traffic online shoppers this year can expect a fairly low key online shopping day countdown. Overall this year's high tech shake out has provided the remaining players with increased market share - which is leading to increased sales.

Peter Crowe, senior commerce producer at Yahoo! Australia & NZ, told ZDNet Australia that although he was expecting some new shoppers, this years marketing would be focussed entirely web based.

"We'll see many customers make their first online purchase this Christmas," Crowe said. "But the focus will be on frequent online users who are already transacting."

Yahoo is planning to capture these Web savvy consumers with random limited-time-only specials, and a notification program based on Christmas specials.

Although most e-tailers are finding themselves on firmer ground, Christmas remains an important stimulus for sales. For none so more than E-Store, who recently signed a deed of company arrangement locking it into monthly repayments of its debt burden.

Nonetheless company administrator, Ian Purchase, is playing down the importance of Christmas for the overall success of the company.

"While we expect sales to increase over the Christmas period, the company certainly doesn't depend on Christmas to survive," Purchase said. "The overall business model is sound and we will increase profit throughout the year, especially as E-store is now one of the survivors."

Nabbing the perfect christmas gift

However, not only the big players are benefiting from a cut back in competition. Niche e-tailers, and traditional catalogue based retailers are expecting to see continued steady growth based on past performance.

It would seem that the trick lies in using mixture of online, or online and offline marketing to encourage growth.

Rebecca Mason, manager of rare children's books e-tailer Mr Chocolate takes advantage of the eclectic audience using the Ebay site, as well as maintaining her own site.

"You often simply can find these books in the stores, so they are an extra-special present at Christmas time," Mason said.

While her sales continue to be focussed on the US, she says the Australian market is growing proportionally, as Australians become more accustomed to online shopping.

"Australian sales used to make up about 10 percent of the total," Mason said. "This has probably grown to about 30 percent, and overall sales have doubled in the past year."

Similarly Nigel Walsh, marketing manager for Oxfam Trading, says Christmas is traditionally a strong time, but that many online sales are stimulated by a catalogue mailed throughout Australia in the run up to the Christmas season.

"We find sales spikes generally coincide with our catalogue mail outs," Walsh said.

Although not a niche etailer, Walsh believes Oxfam well positioned to provide people with slightly unusual gifts for Christmas, tipping Timorese coffee, and hand made Christmas cards and wrap as the big sellers.

"Our programs operate in developing countries throughout Asia, Africa and Latin America," Walsh said. "Essentially they are gifts that give twice, putting much needed funds directly back into the communities where the goods are produced."

With such a diverse range of gifts Walsh is hard pressed to pick the most unusual item wrapped up and posted from the Oxfam warehouse.

"We have everything from Nepalese singing bowls, to African sculpture," Walsh said.

Dusting off the holly leaves

When it come to site design, this Christmas period certainly isn't going to see great changes for any of the e-tailers that spoke with ZDNet Australia.

Christine Simmons, web site business manager with Dymocks booksellers says the company is careful to keep its online marketing in sync with its shopfront approach.

"We will be launching a new look for the site, and new content to coincide with the launch of our Christmas catalogue," she said. "However, the changes will be largely cosmetic, the back end will remain the same."

Sites such as Yahoo are taking a similar approach, making slight modifications to their stock, and giving the e-tail sites a Christmas theme.

Ebay is planning to limit its thematic approach to a Christmas gift guide link which already exists, and Roses Only is planning to throw in some holly for good measure.

For the most part however, online shoppers can expect a quite Christmas, and perhaps a welcome contrast to the din of retail outlets and malls during the silly season spending spree.

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