There were more than fifty companies and businesses exhibiting at the trade show for the Online -Retailer conference in Sydney earlier this month (18-19 August).
Most enjoyed strong and even enthusiastic interest from the more than 2,600 people who attended.
And indeed the whole event suggested something of an industry finding and recognizing itself for the first time.
(Certainly the industry backed the event much more whole-heartedly than the Onlineshop conference and expo your editor organised in Melbourne back in 2007.)
So its worth looking in some detail at the companies who were exhibiting at OnLine Retailer, to help identify who are the newbies and the johnny come latelies, and who are the real deal, here for the long-term and likely to be there next year.
To start with, it was impossible to go past IBM, who paid handsomely for the prime spot for its booth, immediately in front of both the doors exiting the conference halls, and directly in the line of sight for those entering the conference venue.
IBM has, at least in Australia, has never previously shown any interest in the local industry, and despite all their glitz, had no local retailers as examples in their brochures.
Definitely newbies.
Other major exhibitors who clearly spent big on their booths were eBay and PayPal - both clearly well known in the local industry and significant players.
Larry Bloch's company got my vote for the cheekiest and most innovative display and marketing materials - faux breakfast cereal boxes, and they too are definitely significant players.
Melbourne IT, had a largish booth for their Advantate joint-venture with Fairfax. But most of the punters appeared to be not that interested and this Newbie looked a little out of place.
New Zealand company, eStar Online, by contrast, had a big booth in the centre of the expo, and their people were confidently spruiking a impressive list of corporate clients who've adopted their web solutions. Obviously the real deal.
Of the two banks there, the Commonwealth, with their evolve service, were prominent, popular and well-prepared. You might question the evolve service itself, because it has a number of confusing variants - one of which bundles cart and payment gateway - but their show presence was clearly well-prepared.
In comparison, the NAB's booth was unimpressive, and the fact that it was tucked away doiwn the back made it look like a marketing afterthought.
Still, neither the ANZ or Westpac had any presence whatsoever, and their absence was conspicuous.
Other payments players, such as eWay, Transaction Network Services and even Paymate were however present in the show. Matt Bullock's eWay, as always, stood out with a big and bright booth featuring plenty of staff and lots of enthusiasm.
Verisign too, did well, with a large booth that featured an educational game inviting people to pick the difference between a phishing site and a legitimate web-site.
A number of paid search advertisers and agencies such as FirstRate, Permission, Amblique and others were also prominent in the show.
I was surprised too, by the number of logitics and freight companies exhibiting. It wasn't just Aussie Post there; DHL had a big booth, and others I hadn't come across previously such as Temando, Exalt and e-Go.
Various market researchers were there too, such as Coremetrics, Experian Hitwise and Webtrends, Panalysis.
Salmat's Lasoo and Rob Wong's Catalogue Central both had booths promoting their online catalogue and shopping services, whilst The Yellow Envelope too, was there promoting its direct marketing services.
The boys from Powerseller had also clealry spend big on the show but were still playing hard to get, saying that they can't say more ahead of the launch later this year.
There were lots of others I didn't get to visit, and some who were telling interesting, or perhaps I should say curious and unlikely stories about their products and customers.
But generally speaking the show was informative, well-prepared, and useful to those attending.
It was surprising not to see Microsoft, or Google, or Yahoo there.
But maybe next year.
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