Michael Rosenbaum

Age: 27
Company: DealsDirect
Sector: Retail

The Australian online retail sector is small, but its leaders are way ahead of the pack.

Michael Rosenbaum is at the top of Australia's largest online department store, DealsDirect, with revenue of $100 million and a customer base growing by the day.

Rosenbaum started the business with partner Paul Greenberg in 2004, after the two became some of eBay's largest sellers with the AuctionBrokers Australia brand.

It offers thousands of products in dozens of categories, boasts a massive 40,000 square metres of warehouse space and employs over 120 workers – easily making it the largest online store in the country.

Its biggest drawcard is price. Rosenbaum says operating online keeps costs down, allowing it to offer bargain prices to customers who would be paying more if they walked into a bricks-and-mortar location.

While the company has faced the challenge of limited education of online retail in Australia, the competition is catching up. But the company still controls the market, with Rosenbaum well on his way to achieving his goal of obtaining one million customers.