Australian businesses saw a 25 per cent increase in online orders to about $237 billion in 2011-12, according to latest figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).
ABS assistant director of the Innovation and Technology Statistics Branch, Lesley Martin said the estimate comes from orders received from both domestic and overseas household and business customers.
"Our data show there has been an increase in the proportion of businesses placing orders via the internet, up from 51 per cent in 2010-11 to 55 per cent in 2011-12," Martin said.
The publication includes information about how Australian businesses are using IT as well as innovation activity.
"We found that 47 per cent of businesses reported that they had undertaken innovative activity during the year ended 30 June 2012," she said.
"Larger Australian businesses have led the charge with innovation. Three quarters of these businesses introduced, developed and/or abandoned some type of innovation during 2011-12.
"Also, large businesses were twice as likely to report the introduction of innovation than businesses with 0 to 4 persons employed," Martin said.
Overall, the number of businesses that reported the introduction of at least one type of innovation has increased from 33 per cent of businesses in 2010-11, to 41 per cent of businesses in 2011-12.
"Most businesses reported that they had introduced a new organisational or managerial process,"Martin said.
