The present retail environment is generally dismal, according to Harvey Norman chair Gerry Harvey, as he predicted that the Holiday season will not be too rosy for Australian sellers despite high volume of merchandise movements they're witnessing so far.

Addressing Harvey Norman's annual conference on Tuesday, Harvey revealed that consumer electronics are actually flying off the shelves but with softening prices, the returns for retailers are hardly encouraging.

The disheartening trend, he added, is especially true for televisions and audio/visual devices that Harvey Norman have been selling for five decades now.

"It's extremely difficult ... and I don't ever remember selling as much product as we're selling now while having so little turnover," the Harvey Norman boss was quoted by the Australian Associated Press (AAP) as saying.

This early, and Harvey assumes that the trend will be reversed, the giant retailers has accepted the possibility that overall earnings will reach the usual targets but spectacular figures will have to wait another Christmas season.

"There's no sign out there in the community that we're going to have this wonderful Christmas. I don't see it," Harvey stressed.

And the overall picture, Norman said, isn't helping at all as more and more consumers, Australians included, gravitate towards mobile handsets, a segment of the industry currently dominated by smartphones, tablet computers and notebooks.

These gadgets represent many consumers' ongoing reliance on online-based lifestyle - both in conducting their daily activities and in performing even the most mundane task that they used to enjoy taking a long walk and hitting the stores, Harvey said.

In order to compete with the emerging trend, Harvey Norman has joined the fray of online selling and the company is optimistic of achieving growth in that segment by at least three percent over the next three years.

Its in-store strategy has been altered too as audio/visual equipments have been phased out from Harvey Norman showrooms to make way for the in-gadgets of the present time - mobile devices made by Apple, Samsung and Nokia among others.

Overall, Harvey Norman has instituted changes, mostly by doing away with the so-called 'white goods' and catching on the online retail trend, in order to attain its goal for 2011 and possibly enjoy a better Christmas season next year, the company's big boss said.