Retailers' sentiments were confirmed by the latest sales indicator released Friday by the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, which showed that the sector struggled to achieve sales targets last year.

Nevertheless, although the numbers showed some disappointing data, they revealed that with some creativity and technological savvy, more sales can be achieved.

The CBA data also affirmed that off-store sales, or outlets offering door-to-door deliveries, went up by 19.4 percent while miscellaneous stores saw their sales by 8.2 percent in trend terms.

These coping mechanisms to boost sales could be the answer to retailers' lament that emerging competition offered by online retailers, which further eroded many traditional retailers' projected and realized revenues.

According to the report, credit card and debit sales facilitated through CBA's partner merchants shrunk by 9.3 percent in 2011, posting the biggest decline for any sector in the same period.

The CBA data covers some 30 percent of the total transactions recorded by the industry within the given period, underscoring the magnitude of sales retreats faced by retailers last year.

Data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics supported the gloomy environment that characterized the retail sector in 2011, which showed that the last quarter of the year either achieved only minimal or flat gains.

Sales from October though December were so weak that many retailers, including high-end stores like David Jones, were forced to implement deep cuts on their products, some reaching 70 percent, to convince buyers to go out and shop.

Consumers, experts said, opted to keep more of their cash and decided only to purchase when big discounts were in effect.

To save more, many Australians took advantage of the high Australian dollar value and clicked their way on online stores here and abroad, which effectively robbed local retailers of likely sales.

The general condition for the retail sector was so dismal that sales indicator in the year leading to December tumbled by 2.2 percent, according to CBA's Matt Comyn.

Off-store Sales, Door-to-door Deliveries

"Businesses are still struggling with more subdued trading conditions, particularly those in the retail sector which are being forced to continue offering new incentives to lure shoppers in to stores," Comyn told BusinessDay.

Such ploy momentarily paid off as CBA said that the December business sales index gained by 1.3 percent, growth that experts said could have been partly caused by the cash rate cut backs implemented in November and December by the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA).

More rate cuts are forthcoming this year and in some instance, retail sales could see some improvements but considering both the global and local economic condition, numerous challenges could prevent full recovery for the sector.

The Euro crisis is still in dangers of leading to a worldwide recession while Australia's economy has achieved little success in creating more jobs last year.

Comyn predicted that growth prospects for this year will be largely limited, taking into account all economic indicators.

And the trend so far, CBA said, only emits dim prospect as growth in the overall business sales index only advanced by 0.2 percent in December, coming from the 0.3 percent climb in the prior month.