Boxing Day is slow for Canberra multimillionaire Matt Bullock, whose business this year processed $3.385 billion of internet transactions for other people.
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The entrepreneur expects to spend some time in the pool with his kids and maybe drop in to the Boxing Day sales himself to buy some sheets at 60 per cent off.
He might even drive to the shops in his newly acquired Porsche Boxster.
This is because the expanding online retail industry he profits from has conquered many bricks-and-mortar retailers but is far from overthrowing the Boxing Day sales.
His business, eWay, handled the money for about 90,000 online transactions every day in the first half of December last year. On Boxing Day 2012 his transactions dropped significantly to less than two-thirds that amount.
''In the world of online, sales die on Boxing Day,'' said the 41-year-old Mr Bullock.
Online sales are increasing by about $1 billion each year in Australia. Retail sales on the internet rose to $14.4 billion in the year to October 2013, equivalent to 6.4 per cent of traditional retail spending, according to National Australia Bank. Which demonstrates that online sales are tiny compared with what they could be. And within these numbers is a positive trend for Australian businesses.
Domestic retailers continue to control the largest share of online sales, which is about 73 per cent - a statistic that goes against the suggestion foreign traders are stealing all the trade from local companies by using the internet.
Mr Bullock has seen the healthy growth of online retail since starting eWay 15 years ago, but recently has witnessed remarkable year-on-year increases.
''We've processed 24.7 million transactions this year - 16 per cent growth on last year,'' he said.
He starts his day at the breakfast table feeding his two sons, Oscar and Edmund, Vegemite on toast and at the same time working on his computer.
The average transaction eWay oversaw this year was $156.49, a $6 increase from last year.
Almost 14,000 businesses use his online payment gateway to accept payments from customers and his enterprise has about 50 employees in Scotland and Canada as well as in Sydney and its Canberra headquarters. When the father of two last week paid $90 for a yellow suit for a fancy-dress party he pocketed 60¢ from the sale himself because the transaction went through his company.
