Yesterday, Google Australia announced an enhancement that allows Aussies to search for properties on Google Maps.
On the surface, the site looks great with a number of listings for various real estate agents and portals, however upon closer inspection there are a couple of noticeable omissions from the listings, namely the two gorillas of online real estate,  realestate.com.au and domain.com.au.
Patrick Stafford from SmartCompany spoke with former chief executive of REA Group, Simon Baker who views Google Maps as a competitor but not a major threat:

A growing number of Australians are going online to compare before they buy as Australia’s leading comparison shopping website, www.getprice.com.au reports its biggest month to date.
Reporting a massive 2.7 million people shopping for the month of June, getprice.com.au has seen an increase of traffic of more than 500% to the site from June 2008.
“As one of Australia’s fastest growing websites, we are seeing a huge increase in consumers coming to us to make their money go further,” said getprice.com.au Chief Executive, Chris Hitchen.
“Knowledge is power when making purchase decisions and …

Australian retailers trying to reach and retain consumers online will underperform if they fail to learn from the mistakes made by their counterparts in the US, according to the Paul Marshall, executive director of Salmat DigitalForce.
Speaking at the Retail World Summit in Sydney, Marshall warned that retailers risk losing market share if they do not synchronise their strategies across different channels – otherwise known as cross-channel retailing.
“The internet has opened up a whole new channel for retailers to reach consumers, however, it’s critical that a retailer’s ecommerce business is not …

CRN today reported Aussie manufacturer and online retailer of consumer electronics, Kogan, is opening a US warehouse which will pave the way for the company’s global expansion.
Kogan’s Australian head office will manage the Kentucky-based warehouse and products manufactured in China will be shipped directly to the US.
Ruslan Kogan founder and CEO said the company is in the final stages of opening the US branch after three years of growth in Australia.
He said the US market is 20 times bigger than the Australian market and shoppers purchase online there, which directly …

RetailBiz has reported on the latest ecommerce benchmark figures from Coremetrics.
According to Coremetrics, which surveyed the buying habits of more than 75 million shoppers worldwide, Australian and New Zealand shoppers are returning to the world wide web in droves to peruse global e-commerce websites and make online purchases.
Since the global economic downturn, consumers have been naturally careful about their spending habits but it seems that online opportunities are proving too good to pass.
“These figures represent a smarter modern shopper; one that takes time to visit e-commerce sites all over the …

Overstock.com, Inc. today announced its launch of international sales to customers in Australia, Hong Kong, and Singapore. This announcement now brings to 37 the total number of countries in which Overstock is selling products to customers.
These International shoppers can now search, browse and purchase over 600,000 quality discount products, all priced in local currency, from the company’s website: http://www.overstock.com.
“International markets are underserved by online retail,” said Patrick Byrne, Overstock.com chairman and CEO. “With the weakness of the dollar the time has never been better for international customers to buy bargain …

The Courier Mail reports Intabill has been slapped with a $52 million lawsuit by Kolyma Corporation AVV, an online gambling firm associated with Full Tilt Poker.
The action is a result of a failure of Intabill to pass on payments, Kolyma has stated; the company is seeking payment of $43 million plus interest (going back to May 25).

US internet social networking giant MySpace plans to cut 500 jobs, nearly 30 per cent of its US staff, in a restructuring aimed at boosting efficiency.
MySpace, a unit of media magnate Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation, said it was cutting payrolls “as part of a plan to restructure itself into a more innovative, efficient, and entrepreneurial business”.
The restructuring plan affects all US divisions of the company and the round of job cuts will lower the domestic workforce to 1,000 employees, it said in a statement.

In an interview with eTailToday.com.au, dStore’s CEO Andrew Cooper announced they will open their first bricks and mortar store in Brisbane before Christmas.
“It will be a test of the multichannel shopper theory and will be more of a destination where you can pick up a product you’ve ordered online, make a return or buy the product you saw available online,” Cooper said.
“People shop online, they research online, they shop offline and sometimes they research offline and then go and buy online. What we’re providing is an additional channel for customers.

The economy is forcing online retailers to change their marketing tactics in order to acquire and retain customers, according to findings from The State of Retailing Online 2009, the 12th annual Shop.org study conducted by Forrester Research Inc. (Nasdaq: FORR). The survey of 117 online retailers also found that, while the number of companies focusing on customer retention has nearly doubled in the past year, many retailers see the recession as an opportunity to capture market share from weakened competition.