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With the global recession ebbing, retailers everywhere will shortly be focused less on just keeping their heads above water and more on expansion.

If the recovery stays on course, next year the retailers who survived the recession will begin to reap its benefits such as the market share and real estate coughed up by competitors who didn’t make it. It’s a dog-eat-dog world.

Ironically, not having suffered as deep a downturn in consumer spending as their overseas counterparts, the Australian retail industry is at a disadvantage coming out of it.

The cleansing process in Australia has been relatively minor, resulting in the continued survival of a whole legion of superannuated brands.

Since shopping centre occupancy has not been hit so hard by retailer bankruptcies as it has in the US, UK and elsewhere, less high-quality real estate has been freed up. This, in turn, means that many small, fresh and innovative retailers still can’t bust their way into Australian shopping centres.

Even so, some of the most important expansion strategies that will play out around the globe in 2010 are still highly germane to Australian retailers, particularly those with ambition to sell overseas:

1. Mobile commerce. Presently web-enabled mobile phones account for only a tiny fraction of internet sales, but mobile commerce is on the cusp of a rapid growth spurt as an increasing number of smart phones enter circulation. High-profile retailers including Ralph Lauren, Victoria’s Secret, Yoox, Sears, Net-A-Porter and Galeries Lafayette are among those who have recently entered the mobile commerce fray, offering full online shopping capability formatted for small screens.

2. Increased investment in the internet channel, both for direct sales and also market-testing for future stores. US e-commerce sales are continuing to take market share from stores, reaching US$221 billion in 2008. (For perspective , total 2008 retail sales from all formats in Australia was A$224 billion.)

However, retailers can also use geographic data from their internet sales to help determine new store locations. The internet channel enables brands to build exposure in both domestic and overseas markets while reducing real estate risk