Lifestyle Technology vendors are being pressured by high street retailers to not supply online retailers claims a director of the Digital Home web site. However this is not impacting sales as the online site which sells both home entertainment and computing technology has grown 100% month on month for the last six months.

Daniel Barnett one of the founders of www.digitalhome.com.a u claims that In Australia high street retailing is struggling to grow it is the same in the US and the UK. During the past 12 months in both the US and the UK he claims high street retailing has grown less than 8% while at the same time online shopping has grown more than 30%. For example last month in the UK Online shoppers in the UK spent over $3.5 billion online in May, up 35.6% from £2.3 billion in May last year. Total retail sales growth in the U.K. was at its slowest rate since 1947, according to government statistics, with a year-on-year increase of 0.9%. "Australia is heading the same way and vendors have got to realise this and openly support the online retailers whose growth is being driven by consumer demand. Many factors are contributing to the growth of online shopping, including the rapid consumer take-up of broadband, completely secure payment mechanisms and improving delivery solutions" said Barnett.

He added "Online is the future for lifestyle technology retailing. We are cheaper and will deliver to wherever the consumer wants" he said. We also find that people who have invested in broadband have a high disposable income are smart and prepared to shop online. "They are fed up with the bull shit dished out by a lot of high street retailers. We are now selling to consumers and commercial operations as well as educational institutions like RMIT in Melbourne. One business recently wanted 10 LCD screens to be delivered to 10 different real estate agents. The high street store was unable to do this. We are able to do this as we source direct from distributors. We don't have to buy stock in. We are also selling big time into regional Australia where they don't have the luxury of high street stores".

He claims that high street vendors are openly threatening distributors to not supply stock. One vendor he claims, Audio Dynamics approached Digital Home to sell the Audio Dynamics Kloss Radio online. "They were the ones who pressured us to sell the product on the Digital Home web site claiming that it was a big seller online in the US. When we did the deal and started selling the audio range the company suddenly wanted to end the relationship. They claimed it was because of loop holes in the contract. We know that it was because of pressure from retailers. We know because a former employee involved in the original negotiations and now working for a Melbourne distributor confirmed it to us".   

Barnett who will shortly launch the www.smartoffice.com.a u web site for business claims that online is the future as is demonstrated by the success of sites overseas. If the vendors particularly in the home entertainment space keep denying us access to the products in Australia we will merely source them from overseas and bring them in our selves via other distributors. We are now in a position where we can take an order for a high end sound system, sourcing it from an overseas source for significantly cheaper than in Australia and air freight it into Australia within 3 days".

Barnett also claimed that Australia consumers are now buying product on overseas web sites where the price is cheaper and products compatible with Australian power supply. He sites for example USB power supply which he claims has eliminated the need for an Australian specific power supply unit.

"We have held discussions recently in Canberra with the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission as we believe that several retailers are engaging in anti competitive behaviour. We are advised that the ACC is currently investigating one particular large retailer and our claims may make up part of the investigation".

David Richards is a shareholder in both the Digital Home and SmartOffice web sites.