Internet retailing in Australia. Am I allowed an opinion?

Great article Mark - it certainly prompts us to think about how we use the web not only in building brands but in building business!

I think you have forgotten some of the most important aspects of what drives Online Retailing and its success - Proposition and Experience.

Rather like Social Media or eCRM - eCommerce, I have found, is about re-enforcement, translating the experience of offline shopping, online.

People are always eager to 'get' a bargain, i.e. why places like OO.com.au and DStore.com.au have fared as well as they have in the eMarket Place. There is very little emphasis on the perceived 'value' of the goods or retailer, rather just on the bottom line price. For a stock clearance retailer this is a perfect but for a challenger tier or premium retailer this is brand poison.

I think in the cases you brought up of the UK and USA, regionalism plays an important part. I think it comes down to the psychology of the Australian consumer, unlike the US and UK we take our cues from the top of the market, not the bottom. Hence why premium tier retailers in the US, were the last to establish strong eCommerce propositions online, i.e Bergdorf Goodman and Barney's.

I believe you are extremely right about the self-fulfilling prophecy of doubt but perhaps for a different reason. Until premium tier retailers establish a size-able presence in the Australian Online Market place, eCommerce as a successful retailing option will remain limited because of the wariness of the consumer seeing the big guys in town not doing it.

What I have seen is that the most successful online retailers, like successful department stores, offer a restricted selection of goods that appeal to 40-60% of their stock. What I have seen of Australian offerings, is that, there is too much choice, too much variety and not enough emphasis on why to purchase from that retailer, or what the retailer represents. Something that is becoming more critical in this current economic environment. There seems to be a definite trend of people wanting to show that the recession is not affecting them or that they continue to belong to a particular 'class' also people are becoming more conscious of a Brand or Retailers origins and 'story'.

Similarly, the proposition of how they are retailing and advertising is inconsistent across all media. Most Australian eCommerce attempts have been out of brand guidelines, with little emphasis on getting the consumer to interact repeatedly with the site (i.e. the importance of re-inforcement), also the attempts have been poorly thought out and plagued by a lack of transparency in their operations.

Keep up the good work!

Great Article Mark, you're right - there is a fundamental vested interest in bricks and mortar and with that the old advertising channels still dominate the landscape - ie bang for marketing buck.

Change will occur when it is easier for consumers to purchase online then the local store - in much the same way as most of now days do our banking online.

At the moment when we think "local" in most cases the results are offline - a local plumber, a local mechanic, local hairdresser, the local chemist etc. It's hard to imagine the online ROI for these businesses. In the meantime online category killers emerge.

The tipping point for retail online adoption will be when most small businesses in Australia (new market competitors) have a web presence (around 30% at this time). At that time Google indexing on localised services will generate far more effective search results.

Remember, only a five years ago Yellow Pages dominated small business advertising space.

We really need to be discussing the following disiplines:
- Distance selling
- Managing online sales and what this takes away from 'real world salespeople'
- Sourcing product/logistics/delivery standards
when we talk online retail in Australia.

Without introducing and making these three topcis transparent and develop serious disciplines in them, online selling is only going to be for the brave and uniquily modelled.

Try searching for distance selling authored for the Australian market and see what you come up with - 0

azapa

Thanks for your comments (see above feedback). The reason for the coming into being of the internetretailing.com.au site is to address issues like this, i.e the soft areas of online retailing. Over time we will provide expert commentary, articles, meet ups etc to build around these areas. Thank you for being aware of these things, and pointing them out. If you have some salient points or a strong opinion, send me an email and we can explore this further.