[LINK] Net retailing

Frank O'Connor francisoconnor3 at bigpond.com
Mon Jan 6 12:21:06 AEDT 2014


I think the writer, Blair Speedy, underestimates the problems facing Australian 'bricks 'n mortar' retailers ...

To my mind they have any number of problems competing:

# They have to maintain a 'bricks 'n mortar' presence, with all its inefficiencies and attendant costs, IN ADDITION to the online presence ... so it is unlikely their pricing will ever get down to levels affordable by pure online retailers.

# They pretty well have to duplicate their product offerings with what's offered in their 'bricks 'n mortar' stores ... which means that the same limited selection, the same limited availability ("you'll have to wait four weeks for delivery, Sir"), the same often obsolete product lines (usually lagging a year or so behind what's available in the pure online stores) that they managed to buy in cheaply a the end of the producers product cycle.

# Because of this, the range of products (and more importantly competing products) they offer is a lot less than a competing purely online store. 

# They seem to have pretty much the same attitude to customer service as they have in the physical stores. (From "Would you like warranty extensions, prompt delivery, insurance and whatever else we can extract from your wallet with that, Sir" to "Go see the manufacturer/deliverer/insurer, it's not our problem." if the goods prove faulty, aren't delivered, or fail after they've gotten your added cash.) I've found purely online merchants much more understanding and helpful after sales, than any of the major chains in Australia have ever been - and not as much into the hard sell.)

# Delivery and sealing the transaction seems to take longer than with a competing purely online store ... probably because they use the same product delivery and storage infrastructure that serves their physical stores.

# For some reason they don't do product specifications as well on their online stores, as 'real' online stores do. They also don't publish actual user reviews (unless they are glowing ones), or offer links to the product manufacturers sites and third party product review sites like serious online commerce sites do. (Probably for fear that their customers will see how out-of-date and limited their product line-up actually is.)

# Finally, they don't offer much in the way of consumer inducements and promotions on their sites ... it's pretty much a 'take it or leave it' attitude. In short, their sites are no places to go if you are looking for real bargains and sales.

There are any number of other deficiencies and irritants associated with dealing with the big chains online ... but the above are just a few off the top of my head.

So yeah ... they've got a long way to go ... but I don't think it's gonna be as easy to fix as some pundits suggest. The Big 3 or 4 still harken back to the days when they were the importers and customers took whatever they could get ... but with serious online shopping, the customer is now in the box seat and the big retailers have yet to realise this.

Just my 2 cents worth ...
---
On 6 Jan 2014, at 12:24 am, stephen at melbpc.org.au wrote:

> (Local) Retailers have way to go to get their online act together
> 
> BY BLAIR SPEEDY THE AUSTRALIAN JANUARY 04, 2014 
> 
> THE two biggest reasons shoppers cite for buying online are first, price, 
> and second, the convenience of the web as opposed to the drive to the mall 
> and, in the cities at least, battling the crowds.
> 
> For a number of reasons, including labour and rent costs, retailers find it 
> hard to compete with China-based warehouse operations.
> 
> "We ain't world-competitive, and we ain't got a chance of being world-
> competitive," Myer boss Bernie Brookes said during the federal election 
> campaign last year as he called for an end to penalty rates that meant shop 
> staff were paid as much as $62 an hour on public holidays.
> 
> Brookes is right and it could be said it's this, and not so much the GST 
> holiday that buyers have on international goods being shipped here (and 
> that local merchants have campaigned so stridently against) that is the 
> competitive issue.
> 
> And that is why it's so important to get the convenience part right and why 
> Myer's week-long internet debacle is so much more damaging than the $1m it 
> will lose in sales.
> 
> Brookes has been bullish in his forecasts for internet growth, and with 
> overall sales having fallen by more than 3 per cent over the past five 
> years, he's right to be focusing on one of the few areas of the business 
> that are moving forward.
> 
> But in highlighting how little the company expects its website breakdown to 
> cost in lost sales, he's highlighted just how far Myer has to go.
> 
> Myer's online sales more than tripled last year but still accounted for 
> less than 1 per cent of the company's $3.1 billion in annual sales.
> 
> Brookes says they can get to 10 per cent of sales within five years. 
> Assuming zero growth in overall sales, that's going to require online to 
> record compound annual growth of about 60 per cent.
> 
> That might seem a relatively low hurdle given the current explosive rate of 
> growth, but given that NAB's latest Online Retail Sales Index showed that 
> internet spending with domestic retailers was growing at an annualised rate 
> of just 9.6 per cent in October, it is likely that Myer will find that the 
> online market is just as susceptible to the phenomenon of diminishing 
> returns as any other.
> 
> And they're not making things any easier for themselves with a website that 
> is, not to put too fine a point on it, clunky.
> 
> No matter what you're looking for, there's a series of scrolling menus at 
> the side of the page allowing you to refine your search by brand, size and 
> colour -- each of them with hundreds of options.
> 
> To be fair, David Jones' offering isn't exactly top-notch either, with a 
> series of ill-defined categories that encompass more than 2000 items, from 
> belts to trucker caps, which you're welcome to browse across 108 pages.
> 
> That didn't stop DJs recording a tenfold increase in online sales last 
> financial year. But again, we can only assume this was off a very low base.
> 
> Teething problems are to be expected of course, but given how far 
> Australian retailers lag their British and US counterparts -- something 
> Brookes frequently uses to illustrate the size of the online retail 
> opportunity in Australia -- there is no shortage of successful models to 
> emulate. No new ideas are required, and there's an abundance of experienced 
> folks who have already cut their teeth in foreign markets.
> 
> However, a quick perusal of Facebook pages for leading international 
> retailers with a major online presence, such as department store John Lewis 
> in Britain or Macy's in the US, shows that they too can get things wrong -- 
> sale items out of stock or items not arriving in time for Christmas.
> 
> And of course, no website is immune from traffic-related slowdowns.
> 
> Maybe, like the shoppers demanding their merchandise for free in 
> compensation for not getting to them in time for Christmas, we're expecting 
> too much.
> 
> But when Myer devotes half of its AGM to its campaign to have the GST-free 
> threshold on purchases from foreign websites greatly reduced -- a move that 
> will directly hit customers -- it needs to make sure its website has plenty 
> of carrot to balance out the stick they want the government to use to keep 
> shoppers onshore.
> 
> A much-quoted report prepared for the National Retail Association by Ernst 
> & Young estimates that the GST forgone on internet shopping was $608m last 
> financial year and will grow to $806m this financial year.
> 
> However, according to NAB, which uses transaction data to measure purchase 
> value rather than Customs declarations -- which are prone to under-
> reporting -- just 0.2 per cent of online sales are for purchases over 
> $1000, and cutting the tax-free threshold to $25 would raise just $309m in 
> additional tax revenue.
> 
> That shoppers may be paying less in additional tax than the retailers 
> expect will not remove the perception that the merchants are seeking 
> government protection from cheaper and better competitors offshore.
> 
> The federal government is yet to reach agreement with the states -- who 
> receive all GST revenues and so are very keen for the threshold to be 
> lowered -- on how the system can be reworked, but is expected to make a 
> decision in coming months.
> 
> And when it does, the retailers who led the campaign -- Myer, Harvey Norman 
> and Just Jeans parent Premier -- can expect a backlash from online 
> shoppers.
> 
> But it probably won't stop Myer hitting its 10 per cent sales target.
> 
> There's already plenty of other things that could do that.
> 
> --
> 
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