Are Australian businesses struggling to make money from the Net? A survey by the Bureau of Statistics shows only eight percent of businesses are currently 'Internet commerce active'.
This represents about 38,000 businesses Australia-wide.
"This is the first time we've used the concept of being Internet commerce active," an Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) spokesperson told ZDNet. "Therefore we didn't really have an expectation," she added.
However, the figure looks to be in line with Canada, a comparable economy, which clocked up a 10 percent Internet commerce activity rate amongst local businesses, according to the ABS.
Of Australia's 38,000 Internet commerce active businesses, 39 percent generate less than one percent of total sales via the Internet, 27 percent generate one to five percent of sales over the Net, and 34 percent of businesses generate five percent or more of total sales in this manner.
Only two percent of businesses generate 50 percent or more of their sales from the Internet, according to the 1999-2000 Business Technology Survey.
The ABS also found that the estimated total value of sales/orders received by businesses via the Internet was AU$5.1 billion, or 0.4 percent of total sales/orders received for goods and services.
On their way to being Internet commerce active are 46 percent of Australian businesses that currently use the Internet to facilitate business - excluding the fundamental activities of email and information seeking.
This is termed being 'Internet business active'.
Although being Internet business active is "a far cry" from being Internet commerce active, it's "certainly the first step", according to the ABS spokesperson.
The survey also found that adoption of IT by Australian businesses has increased from 49 percent of businesses using computers in 1993-1994 compared to 76 percent in 1999-2000.
Furthermore, the proportion of businesses with Internet access has almost doubled from 29 percent to 56 percent during the same period and the proportion of Australian businesses with their own Web sites has more than doubled - from six percent to 16 percent.
However, "while the level of use of computer and Internet technology appears to be relatively high among Australian businesses, one in four businesses do not use a computer and nearly half of all businesses do not have access to the Net," the ABS said.
The ABS surveyed 15,500 random businesses and intends to conduct its Business Technology Survey annually.
