This comes as Australian consumers await the official arrival of online giant Amazon. There are suggestions that could be as early as next week to coincide with the Black Friday and Cyber Monday online buying event.

The scene has been set for just how great the appetite is for online shopping, as shoppers spent more than $33 billion in 24 hours during China's annual Singles Day on November 11, smashing previous records for the world's largest retail event and eclipsing Australia's annual December retail spend.

Speaking at the group's annual general meeting in Sydney on Thursday, chief executive Greg Goodman said e-commerce sales are likely to grow by more than 60 per cent in the next three years.

Mr Goodman said consumer expectations are increasing and there will be a flow-on effect to industrial real estate, so it is imperative tenants have large warehouses.

"The macro environment is favouring logistics real estate. E-commerce is expected to grow by more than 60 per cent by 2020 and companies are continuing to look for supply chain efficiencies as consumer expectations around product delivery and availability rise," Mr Goodman said.

"Warehouse proximity to consumers has become a critical factor in reducing delivery time and cost. In this shifting consumer landscape, having the right footprint matters."

He said with the lack of large land areas in the inner city, where demand is expected to be high for online shopping, particularly with high-density living, more vertical warehouses will be constructed.

"Already we have large warehouses that are multilevel and are run by robots and other artificial intelligence, this will increase" Mr Goodman said.

He said Goodman is buying land in these fringe areas that can be developed as warehouses to cater for the anticipated growth in e-commerce.

With the imminent arrival of Amazon, research group Forrester's analyst, Zhi Ying Ng, said its entry into Australia will shake-up the retail market, providing consumers a plethora of choices at much lower prices, faster delivery and better digital experiences.

"Incumbent Australian retailers will face stiff competition and will be forced to offer customers more variety at competitive prices, and potentially same-day delivery at no cost," Ms Ng said.

"Incumbent Australian retailers will also be under immense pressure to accelerate existing digital initiatives, especially around smarter use of data and analytics in order to personalise products, services and experiences to customers. Most will start by improving their website's user experience to make it easier to navigate and move on to improve supply chain and delivery capabilities."

Ms Ng said Amazon still faces a number of challenges, including logistical challenges.

"Australia is a vast country and its population is spread over a large area," she said

"To reach Australian consumers who live outside the metro area in the country without having to pass on extra delivery costs and without delivery delay will be Amazon's challenge. Local players with strong and established delivery networks and capabilities could potentially blunt the disruption that Amazon may cause."

She said Australia hasn't seen many digital disruptors in its retail market and the retail sector is now ripe for disruption.

Local large incumbent players must embrace true digital transformation, by supercharging initiatives to change culture, people, technology and insights, which are essential for competing with a global powerhouse such as Amazon. "If they don't accelerate their digital transformation journeys, they risk being disintermediated," Ms Ng said.