One in five people have got squat when ordering goods online Ant White and Caroline Ball, creators of Sorry Thanks I Love You online gift store in the Sydney CBD. ONE in five Australians has bought something online that has never shown up. And online shopper anxiety is putting a premium on local customer service, with something as simple as an Australian contact phone number making a big difference to consumer piece of mind. In a survey of 1016 Australians, 221 respondents - or almost 22 per cent - have purchased something online that has never arrived. Negative online shopping experiences are driving Australians to stores they trust. "If a consumer has a bad experience online, they are unlikely to come back to the same store," said Adrian Christie, spokesperson for eBay Inc. What we're finding with merchant partners in Australia is that they put a lot of emphasis around trust and how to earn trust. The importance of trust online gives local online retailers a leg up, with new players using it to their advantage. Ant White, 32, from Rose Bay in New South Wales set up the online gift giving store 'Sorry Thanks I Love You' with his girlfriend Caroline Ball, 26, and friend Matt Gurry, 33, earlier this year. "We wanted to have a crack at bringing the old-fashioned, personal customer service that we remember from the local hardware store owners of our childhoods, online," said White. The store sells and delivers customised, hand-wrapped gifts through their website. "We're available to talk on the phone 24/7 and have even imported specific products from overseas when people have rung with special requests," said White. Mr Christie believes the success of vendors is strongly linked to customer service, including having an Australian telephone support line. "I think people want to know that if something goes wrong they have someone they can call and blame," he said. The recent drop in the Australian dollar is also helping local online vendors, allowing them to be more competitiveness with overseas stores on price. Last week the ABS published data which calculated Australia's online shopping in 2011-12 to $4.554 billion at domestic outlets and $6.226 billion at international stores. Beyond bad online shopping experiences, 60 per cent of those surveyed were victims of general online threats, according to the survey which was commissioned by online security company Trend Micro and carried out by Research Now.