Popular internet auction site eBay said on Friday that as more Australians turn on online shopping, the country's web-based retailers are experiencing growth while delivering services required by consumers who have little time for traditional purchases.

Speaking at the Online Retail Forum held at Sydney, eBay managing director for Australia and New Zealand operations, Deborah Sharkey, said that Australia's online retail industry is projected to achieve double-digit growth this year while stressing at the same time that benefits delivered by the sector were not exclusive for retailers located outside of the country.

On the contrary, Sharkey said that thousands of Australian businesses are currently capitalising on the burgeoning online trading and those figures are only destined to multiply in the months ahead, citing latest data that showed "10 million Australians are voting with their clicks and they're telling us that the future of retail is online."

In 2010 alone, eBay has facilitated a total turnover of more than $120 million from the combined transactions of the site's top 2000 sellers and according to Sharkey, that year's top seller was able to generate sales of more than $12.6 million.

Industry experts said that more and more Australians are doing their shopping online as the solid value of the local currency give them higher purchasing power but retailers are lamenting that the downside of the emerging trend is the folding up of many traditional retailers.

Giant bookshops Borders and Angus & Robertson entered receivership on Thursday, which the industry said were some glaring indicators of the decline of traditional book retailing not only in Australia but also around the world.

The declines were blamed by Australian retailers to online trading and some of the industry's major players even called for the imposition of GST on web-based purchases, in the same manner that were applied to conventional stores.

Such arguments were anchored on latest findings, as furnished by eBay, that showed average Australians are spending close to two hours shopping online and when using their mobile phones, purchases are consummated every 15 seconds.