The table illustrates and compares data about department and online stores in Australia in 2011.
Overall, four different aspects are represented in the table: the number of businesses, profit, sales revenue, and growth. As can be seen, online stores outperformed department stores in almost all categories.
To begin with, the number of online businesses was significantly higher, with 368 stores compared to just 67 department stores. This indicates that online retail was already more common than traditional department stores during the period. Furthermore, the profit earned by online stores was slightly higher than that of department stores, at 863 and 807 million dollars, respectively.
In terms of sales revenue, the figures were quite close. Online businesses generated 12,836 million dollars, while department stores earned 12,700 million dollars — a small difference of only 136 million. However, the most noticeable difference can be seen in the growth rate. Online stores experienced a 6% increase in growth, which was considerably higher than the 4% recorded for department stores. This reflects a faster expansion in the online sector during that year.