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New online 'mega mall' wants to reclaim Aussie customers

The biggest Australian online shopping mall is set to fight back against the surge of foreign retailers taking over the local market

A new Aussie 'mega mall' is looking to reclaim customers back to buying Australian and to cater for fast-growing online shopping trends which have hit $19.6 billion in the past year.

CEO and founder, Darryl Reeves, said the Aussie 'mega mall' (AMM) was created as a fight back against the huge number of foreign stores coming into Australia and buying their way to the top of search engines.

“In a growing number of categories of retail, it's getting difficult to get an Australian retailer on the first page or two of search engines now,” he said. “We aim to stop this because it's very bad for Australian business, economy and, importantly, it's very bad for Australian people.”

Australian online shopping is showing no signs of slowing. The NAB Online Retail Sales Index for April 2016 revealed Australians spent an estimated $19.6 billion on online retail for 12 months to April 2016.

Reeves said with more than 7 million Australian shoppers, AMM enables shoppers to browse hundreds of aisles and thousands of stores with no need for time-consuming searches, frustrating dead-ends or even fumbling with keypads or keyboards.

“The site is 100 per cent touch, which is perfect for hand-held devices," he claimed. "Every store looks like and works like an app and can be found on page one of the aisle of a shopper's choosing."

Any Australian online store, from large corporates to small stores, can list their online store for free, and there are also 15 premium paid spots available in each category.

“Many businesses can be Skyped directly from the site," Reeves added. "We’re the only business Skype directory anywhere as far as I know,” Mr Reeves said.

Upcoming features include social media links, listings for offline businesses, professionals and B2Bs , auction site, classifieds, loyalty points and an AMM app. Future plans include opening a New Zealand Mega Mall this year, as well as malls in the US, UK and South Africa in 2017.

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