Online-only retailers blitzing internet sales PURE-PLAY online retailers are outpacing their bricks-and-mortar competitors in terms of internet sales growth, but traditional merchants still control the lion's share of revenue, according to the latest retail trade figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics. The ABS, which began measuring online sales only last year, reported that purely online retailers grew monthly sales from $123.7 million to $145.3m between March and September last year, a 17.5 per cent gain.