Australia’s ongoing online retail fiasco
The continuing inability of Myer and David Jones to deliver customers a decent online brand experience disqualifies them from complaining about digital competitors eating their lunch, argues Tim Burrowes
All credit to Myer. It’s not many retailers who can make a Boxing Day sale last for three weeks.
But thanks to comments from unhappy customers on the company’s Facebook page, it is possible to monitor in real time the continuing erosion of brand value.
I must declare an interest here. I am myself an amused and bemused consumer of that online experience. Not that Myer’s main rival David Jones has done much better, but more on that later.
Being something of a misanthrope when it comes to bricks and mortar retail sales, I actually decided to give the stores’ online sales a shot.
As it will have been hard to miss, Myer’s site crashed within hours of its Christmas night launch and remained offline for the next eight days.
In a world where Google being down for eight seconds would be remarked upon, Australia’s biggest retail brand was down for eight days.
But most curious was how unconcerned Myer boss Bernie Brookes seemed.
The nice folk at partner IBM were hard at work fixing it, he told the market.
And online was, he reassured his investors, only responsible for about one per cent of the company’s revenues. Which doesn’t sound too bad until you wonder whether the fact that it’s only at one per cent is because the store hasn’t been doing enough to catch up with its competitors.
Still, when the Myer site came back, and lured by the offer of free delivery, I gave it a shot.
At first, I couldn’t make the site function on my browser (a recent version of Google Chrome) at all. Oddly, switching to incognito mode, made it work, after a fashion.
But it was s-l-o-w. I had to be very patient, and very focused on only buying exactly what I wanted. Even staying focused, it took more than an hour to buy my items. For instance, you actually had to go through the whole process of selecting an item, a size and a colour before it would then tell you there were none on sale.
But I was certainly not going to browse for some more impulse buys. Dollars I might have spent were lost.
After the Myer site successfully took my payment of nearly a grand (I can only face sales shopping once a year), I felt blessed. A common theme on the Myer Facebook page was people complaining that after they had been through the entire process, their order had been lost and they’d had to go back to the beginning, or give up. And that was if they had got it to work at all.
Thus encouraged, I decided to see if I could pick up a few frivolous items from competitor David Jones, which was capitalising on Myer’s misery by offering free delivery.
This was despite a near-astonishing piece of brand destruction I’d witnessed outside David Jones’ Sydney store on Christmas Eve.
As many will know, the store has a tradition of giving its windows over to Christmas displays, featuring puppets, animatronics and music. It’s a genuine attraction and draws crowds.
I found myself outside the store after it closed on Christmas Eve. It was perfectly placed to be part of Christmas spirit, as people headed across Hyde Park to look at the amazing projection mapping onto St Mary’s Cathedral.
There were crowds at the David Jones display windows. But in one of the best metaphors I’ve witnessed for the commercialisation of Christmas, the customers were being elbowed aside by contractors who were covering it up by pasting signage for the company’s post-Christmas sale over the whole window.
The metaphor got better – one of the sign guys brusquely told a young girl who was trying to peep through before it was covered up “Get out of the way.” You can see the back of her head in the first picture. There was no please or thank you. I actually asked the person I was standing with, if I’d heard correctly. The magic of Christmas it was not.
David Jones’ Christmas display… Going….
David Jones’ Christmas display… going…
David Jones’ Christmas display… gone
The next morning, driving past in a taxi, I noticed the poster appeared to have been torn down and the display was visible again. I’ve no idea whether this was action by a Christmas vigilante or if the store had thought better of it.
Still, free shipping is free shipping. And David Jones’ site was faster than Myer’s and a reasonably intuitive experience. The ease of browsing meant that in about a quarter of the time I spent a further 600 bucks I hadn’t planned to
I then settled back to wait for my goods from Myer and David Jones to arrive.
Remember that scene in Seinfeld when he turns up at the car hire place and although they’ve taken his booking, they don’t have the car?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWTMa76BzH0
It turns out, this is a similar experience online to shopping with the big two retailers.
Three days later, a package arrived from Myer. It was smaller than expected. But then it only contained one item.
A couple of days after that, another item arrived. A few days after that another. And then things went quiet until yesterday, when a fourth package arrived. Of most of it though, there’s no sign a fortnight on.
It seems that as well as the website not being fit for purpose, neither is Myer’s fulfilment operation.
By an amusing juxtaposition, I’m currently reading The Everything Store, the excellently written tale of the early days of Amazon. Back in 1995 or so, as Amazon began to take off, every manager from CEO Jeff Bezos downwards would spend the evening helping out in the warehouse to make sure the company stayed on top of its orders. My guess is that over at Myer Bernie Brookes has not been rolling up his sleeves to get the orders out of the warehouse.
I’m clearly not alone – otherwise writing this post would be too self-indulgent. From the complaints about the uselessness of the site a couple of weeks ago, Myer’s Facebook page is now covered with complaints from people in my boat, wondering whether they’ll get the goods they’ve paid for.
All of them likely to be former customers.
To paraphrase Jerry Seinfeld, they know how to take the order, but they don’t know how to deliver the order.
Meanwhile, thus far there’s been no sign of any of my stuff from David Jones either, so I gave them a ring this morning. When they eventually answered, they explained that just because they’ve took my money, it didn’t mean the items were in stock. They’re waiting for some of the goods to come in from the manufacturer. And they won’t send anything out, until the whole order is complete.
It’s not like walking into a sale and buying what you see in the shop. Or like ordering from Amazon, come to that, which generally takes three or four days to send the order from the US or UK.
But the weird thing is that neither brand seems overly bothered by the online disruption that is already destroying their business models, and the need to compete on that playing field.
In recent years, I’ve watched from afar as a couple of technology debacles humiliated brands, and they seemed to take it a bit more seriously.
When the BBC’s expensive digitisation project had to be axed, the chief technology officer was suspended.
Meanwhile, here The Australian reported: “Brookes has indicated the company will not be seeking a scapegoat for the glitch — something that undoubtedly will prompt sighs of relief from [head of IT Anthony] Coelho, who joined Myer a year ago from Apple, head of online sales John Joyce and website manager Richard Harrison.” Lucky them.
Yet having a retail website that’s fit for purpose isn’t beyond any big brand any more. The technical side of things – and just why this is such a debacle in 2013/14 – has been well covered elsewhere – including this excellent piece on Delimiter which makes the case well that the situation amounts to incompetency.
It’s also a trend to look out for. Increasingly, marketers are going to find themselves in the hands of the chief technology officer. Let’s hope the when it comes down to it, CMO can rely on the CTO.
Customers only tend to try a brand experience once. Given the expectation of having to wait a couple of weeks or more, would you use a site twice?
What an embarrassing mess.
January 15 update: A few hours after this item was published I had a call from David Jones customer services saying that they’d noticed I’d been waiting a long time for my order and would like to offer me a 10 per cent discount.
- Tim Burrowes is content director of Mumbrella
Tim Burrowes founded Mumbrella in 2008. He worked on Mumbrella until 2021. At various points he was editor, content director and editor-at-large.
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Tim,
What a well written piece.
Myer, and David Jones disdain, and lack of understanding of how to treat its customer, will ultimately result in its downfall.
Amazon – when are you going to have more things available for cheap shipping to Australia? I’m ready to give you my business.
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It is ridiculous – I gave up shopping at either of those stores long ago because of the fact that staff are clearly disinterested in serving you and the stock available is poor. I tend to buy at smaller boutiques where someone clearly has a better eye for product selection.
I shopped the Net-a-porter sale over the Christmas break – a lovely experience. Some sale items were out of stock, but that was clearly indicated. My new shoes – 70% off – were delivered in two days. And that’s a UK site.
I think that market forces will prevail.
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Excellent article.
You could probably use the same theme and apply it to the majority of Auatraliam online retailers – on the one hand we have the likes of Gerry “wind bag” Harvey constantly whinging and whining about the online GST exeptions and that its ‘unAustralian’ not to buy a Japanese made TV from his store and instead buy it online. On the other hand we have examples such as those you have listed – major players in the Australia retail industry treating online shopping as if it were a mere passing phase.
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Great piece Tim and well put together.
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ToysRUS – similar experience. Paid for and waited 4 weeks for a popular toy to be delivered pre-Christmas only to then be told my order had been cancelled and refunded as there was no stock coming in. I could have bought the toy elsewhere if I had been told this 4 weeks previously…but 4 weeks later the toy had sold out across Australia and Amazon US and UK. So I was scuppered…
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Nice article and one that needed to be written but do they care and will they listen? Sales without the service just smacks of cheap especially when you have to do it yourself!
I found this company online who cut out the shopping and send you the clothes – looks like this might be a winner for me! http://www.kentandlime.com.au
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Not just DJs and Myer, Tim. While online experience was good, Pottery Barn failed to deliver part of an order that I placed three weeks before Christmas. With one week to go until Christmas and no show of my order, I called to discovered my items were on back order until February. There was no correspondence from them that this was the case.The order included Christmas decorations and gifts – no good to me in February guys!
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What an utter cluster-fuck.
Australia has one of the highest online purchasing rates. Yet both big retailers stuff it up so badly (and using IBM, it was almost inevitable)
I can now see why many brands such as Bonds are cutting out the cretinous middle-man retailer online.
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Yet BigW and Target seemed to cope alright.. eating some of that delicious market share. Num-num-num!
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Great Article Tim, sadly not a surprise.
Myer & DJs completely fail to understand that, whilst online shopping is new for them, most Aussie consumers have been shopping online for years, and so have a much higher set of expectations.
I had a similar experience with Styletread, the online shoe guys, when they launched 3 years ago – the supplier stuffed up, and my order went missing. Here’s the kicker – I got the 2 pairs of shoes gratis, a $50 voucher, and 50% off my next order as well as a personal email from the CEO apologising profusely. I don’t see Bernie doing that anytime soon.
Unfortunately, DJs and Myer have been locked in an old-school service mentality for decades, and have completely missed the fact that Aussies have become more discerning…
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Thought this may be of interest to readers – via Facebook to Watch Station – a subsidiary of Fossil Australia – they are the Aussie distributors for D&G, Michael Kors, Armani, Karl Largefeld and more watch brands:
Conversation started Tuesday
Sharon Louise Smith
1/7, 4:56pm
Sharon Louise Smith
Hi there, today I had an extremely disappointing experience at your pop up store in Chatswood Chase. We were walking by and My bubbly & I noticed you had a range of Karl Lagerfeld timepieces and after trying some on, the sales assistant advised that there was one in black available for 50% off. I much preferred this and we decided to talk about buying it. We returned within 10 mins to buy it and discussed taking out links. We then went I pay and the watch came up full price. By then the assistant was joined by another colleague who explained that another team member must have put the wrong watch in the sale cabinet. Naturally we thought that as it was an error we would have the price honored. Not only was this not the case, we were not even offered a discount whatsoever, just the full RRP. I was very disappointed with this and don’t know what your company policy is in this situation but the way this was handled was very poor. We were told of the watch being on sale and then it was in the sale cabinet supposedly in error. I hope to hear from your team soon regards, Sharon Smith
Wednesday
Watch Station
1/8, 1:09am
Watch Station
Hello Sharon, Thank you for providing this feedback. Please provide your telephone for further assistance. We would like to provide this to our district manager to look into this situation for you. We look forward to your reply. Best Regards, Watch Station social@watchstation.com
Wednesday
Sharon Louise Smith
1/8, 8:22am
Sharon Louise Smith
Hi there, my contact number 04130303xx thanks
Watch Station
1/8, 11:11am
Watch Station
Hello Sharon, Thank you for providing this information. Please also let us know where you are located so that we may share this experience with the correct district manager. We look forward to your reply. Best Regards, Watch Station social@watchstation.com
Wednesday
Sharon Louise Smith
1/8, 3:11pm
Sharon Louise Smith
Hi there, as mentioned in my initial correspondence, it was Chatswood Chase – a pop up store that used to be Tie Rack.
Today
Sharon Louise Smith
1:34pm
Sharon Louise Smith
Hi there, I’m so shocked in this day of social media that you would not respond with a follow up almost a week down the track. Fossil Australia used to be a great company for customer service. Very disappointed with the initial issue and the pathetic lack of follow up.
Today
Watch Station
3:24am
Watch Station
Hello Sharon, We apologize for the delayed response. We have forwarded this to our district manager; however she is on holiday and will be back at the end of this month. We apologize for the inconvenience and will make sure to follow up with this situation. Please let us know if you have any further questions in the meantime. Best Regards, Watch Station social@watchstation.com
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Well written Tim. Evolution in action this is – adapt or die – and it would seem that Myers and DJs have both developed a rather nasty cough, which is really an incredible missed opportunity for one of them because if they managed to get their shit right they’d surely stomp the other out of existence. But it would seem they’d both rather die slowly, cradled in each other’s arms.
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If it’s not an online only store there is no point buying anything online in Australia. They just don’t have it together.
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Hi Tim,
Good piece, but you place Waaaaayyyy too much emphasis on “Brand Value”, not enough emphasis on absence of revenues. the reality is this – if people want to buy something, and the distribution and virtual opening hours of that retailer is non-existent, then people will buy elsewhere.
In other words, they doors were closed, they didn’t capture the revenues.
It’s pretty simple. They are effectively training people not to shop there, because they’re not open long enough.
Imagine an ATM with limited opening hours? Yes, it would be bad for the brand, but it’s even worse for the bottom line.
All of it would be resolved if they used agile systems, instead of old fashioned, clunky IT consultancies.
Con
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The statement of “it only represents a small portion of our revenue” is all too common from retailers. Retailers need to realise that whilst eCommerce sales may represent a small portion of revenue, the portion of sales their sites influence is enormous. The sooner retailers begin to value their website on the basis of total sales contribution to the business as a whole the sooner they will make the appropriate investment required in the digital space to deliver experiences inline with consumer expectations. eCommerce is the tip of the iceberg……..
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How long before we have the big retailers stepping up the lobbying on the Federal government to change the GST rules again? Online shopping is a space they CAN compete in but they seem to be incapable of organising a root in a brothel. I’ve just re read my notes from Project Management 101 and the failures seemed to be so basic that they could almost be pay off some strange plan to fail on purpose.
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Interestingly, after initially going to market, Myer chose to perform their online fulfilment themselves rather than use some of the experienced logistics providers who have existing warehouse management systems and order tracking systems that they could tap into.
A strange decision for their first foray into online, now they’ve only got themselves to blame instead of a specialist company whose very existence depends on getting it right.
You can’t be Amazon overnight….
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The British department store Debenhams offers free shipping and in a timely manner.
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Interesting read..thanks 😉
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The same way Australia’s newspapers left it too late, so too have the retailers.
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I’d like to share a great experience from DJ’s. My daughter wanted a watch. No convenient store had it in stock, so we bought her other items for Christmas. Her birthday is Jan 1, so I went on-line a couple of days before Christmas, had a seamless browsing and purchase experience, was advised that delivery would be December 30th and was happy. Funny thing was it turned up on Christmas Eve, 6 days early and 2.5 days after purchase. Was spoilt for choice on both big days.
That being said, I was part of the team that launched and ran Myer Direct, their once extraordinary mail order business in the mid 80’s. They possessed all of the technology and warehouse and despatch infrastructure to take hold of the rise of on-line shopping before anyone else, so they sold it to ezi-buy in NZ believing it would never take off. Can’t always get it right I suppose!
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Wow, Sharon. There’s legitimately expressing concerns about levels of service, and then there’s entitled whinging. Posting that exchange here crosses firmly into the latter.
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Hi Matt, sorry you thought so – I felt it was on topic concerning customer service response times and lack of concern for the impact on brand value for customers and how social media can really sway your experience either way. Again, sorry for posting if you felt it crossed some line.
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Tim,
I wonder if its possible to be great at online when your completely shit at offline. Maybe they need to go back to basics on customer experience first. On some Thursday nights I’d swear DJ’s is trying to get away with one poor 60 something year old per floor running between cash registers. Same with Myer. You can hear crickets chirping behind the counters on some weekday afternoons. Their staff are stressed as a result and so what is supposed to be the sweet spot of customer service for these guys traditionally is inevitably very poor. I guess management has this all worked out though through some sophisticated time in motion studies or something…..must be some ROI in putting more crickets on the floor than service staff. Except that when I visit a JB HiFi store the staff are young,smart, fast, sometimes tatooed , and there’s millions of them falling over themselves to serve you and get you out the door quick in a polite and efficient manner. The place is busy and has the feel of success. I wonder what their online is like?….I’ve never used it because the stores are so easy to use.
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Good piece Tim. As you mentioned the company responsible for the website is IBM. Myer made the decision to use them, but you would expect them to know how to do this sort of thing. The Register had a good piece on their role in this: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2.....utage_ibm/
Companies like Myer need to realise two things:
1) Don’t get your IT department to build and manage a customer-facing experience. Keep them in charge of buying PCs and setting up email, not designing customer-centric interactive experiences.
2) Don’t out-source to IBM, Accenture and the like. They are external expensive IT departments. See rule one, and the Myer case study that Tim’s just written about.
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It’s not like Myer & DJ’s are pioneers in the field here, others can do it, and do it well. For online shopping, Myer should hire whoever is behind the Peter’s of Kensington site. Their model is brilliant, with witty descriptions of the merchandise, a seamless shopping experience, fast delivery and cheap prices. I’ve used them for years and they run rings around the others, sending weekly emails of their specials and having a wish list which works as a reminder for when there are enough items on there to justify the $7 postage cost. I gave up on Myer’s website at Christmas and had to order over the phone. They told me the problem was I had entered my address putting Sydney as a city, and it was really a State!!!
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Don’t give Bonds too much credit. I have had terrible customer service from them – their return policy is 4 weeks with absolutely zero leeway for any reason, and their delivery time is slow. They wouldn’t give me a refund for an item that they sent in the wrong size. I will not be ordering online again.
I’ve had fabulous service from the Iconic and Asos who have been helpful and flexible and am a loyal customer for this reason.
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A year ago I gave Myer 10 years until collapse – now I give them 5.
Customer service in store is terrible, and the online experience is a joke. Do they even actually care? Considering their position, it would actually be easy for them to dominate the in-store and online market but they are ruining their own position within the future generations. What happened to them?!!
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I echo the amazing service at pile em high and sell em cheap JB Hi-Fi, I shop at their Bondi Jct store most Saturdays and am blown away by the service, both at the till and staff on the floor (plenty of them by the way). Meanwhile, over the other side of Westfield Bondi, most DJ’s tills are unattended. And, for some bizarre reason, DJs doesn’t bother to put prices on a lot of its items. Even more bizarrely, the staff, when you can find them, don’t think it is a problem.
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Compare the debacle with Styletread – an online shoe seller based in Homebush Sydney. Surely one of the fastest, most intuitive websites. Free delivery. Free return.
Great customer service team to respond when/if there is a problem. In fact there are no “problems”, just ways to make the customer even more happy. I dont kown who did their website, but it is just a joy to play with.
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Myer schmyer: Some years back – maybe 3 – I needed new bras. I wanted the whole professional correct fit deal with an assistant who had seen many other women’s floppy tits and was not judgemental. So I went to a department store, like I have done in the past – Myer at Parramatta. But there were no fitting specialist – I was expected to take 2 items in, try them on, get dressed, take another 2 items, try them on…. and pay $60-$80 per bra. Could not face the humiliation and hassle. Happened to walk past a small outlet on a lower Westfield floor – young assistant more than happy to help fit and hand in a range of sizes and styles. I could not have been happier – especially when the bra was $12 – WITH expert customer service. I have not been to a department store since. And dont see that changing in my lifetime.
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This interweb thing is just a fad.
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Hi Tim, thanks for this article. Well crafted and researched, your passion, (and frustration), to see a new technology led customer centric retail in Australia is patent.
As the CEO of Australia’s newest industry association, NORA, advocating for a new retail, I share that passion. In the interests of balance, and certainly not as an apologist for insufficient retail practice, can I provide a bit of respectful balanced commentary. Firstly, unquestionably Bernie, Richard and John would have felt the pain of this situation most intimately. Of course they have to manage all their stakeholder expectations as an ASX listed retailer, and would have had to moderate their tone to the media. But sleepless nights and a deep concern by Myer management is a certainty. Secondly, as someone who has been in so called online retail for fifteen years, whilst I do not for one second pretend to defend a poor customer experience, I do feel the pain of the larger retailers who are crossing the Rubicon to new retail. It is tough going. You can be assured that although it does not look like it, both Myer and DJ management and their teams would have done some huge heavy lifting over the last 18 months or so, to raise the bar. Have they done enough?Well clearly not, but they are well and truly in the game, despite the ruptures that occurred over the busy period. I think, and hope, that management will take the learnings, repair with their customers, and come back stronger and better in the year ahead. In fact I am certain of it.
NORA is working tirelessly to provide a catalyst, a catalyst for collaboration, and think the response to this disappointing retail experience needs to be broad. All the stakeholders of new retail – supply chain, technology, payments etc – need to come together to raise the bar, and keep up with an Australian shopper who rightfully so holds the power and is an enabled global shopper. Australian retail is an ecosystem. A competitive one, but like all ecosystems, requires the symbiotic effect of the participants. Australian retail needs to meet , indeed exceed, the offshore shopping experience. To do so, we will need to dig deep and collaborate.
Paul Greenberg – CEO
Nora.org.au
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+1 Peter’s of Kensington. Flat delivery fee ($7) and having the cheapest prices for every item in my basket were the most important considerations. However the below points mean that I have no issues recommending them and will definitely revisit their site first in future:
1) Merchandising – Clear descriptions and images that you can actually zoom in on. I knew exactly what I was buying and there were no surprises when the items arrived. Chances of returns because the item isn’t as described are greatly reduced as I have all the information I need before making the purchase.
2) A basket that works with multiple tabs and over multiple visits – Both of these contributed to probably a 30% increase in my final purchase value. Not only could I compare similar products using tabs in my browser (and add to the basket from any of the tabs knowing that the site would remember this after I close the tab) I could visit the site over the course of a few days and add to what I had already decided to buy. It still surprises me the number of ecommerce sites that still haven’t got this right. If items start disappearing from my basket because I’m not taking a linear journey through the site over a short period of time, then it’s likely that I’m going to find a competitor that lets me mull over a purchase and do my research.
Bernie Brooks may claim that online only accounts for 1% of all sales, but imagine what that figure could be if they improved the overall experience.
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Great article Tim. Had an identical experience with Myer last week: same browsing problems, and same delivery issues – two reasonably expensive items paid for, the first received four days after the order, the other still MIA.
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Very true.
Reality of Australian marketers/marketing and other areas too including logistics and supply chain management:
Australia is a country that has lost out in many areas and will continue to do so due to 3 main reasons-innovation, technical skills and education (all way behind). Retail and manufacturing aren’t the only industries that have faced challenges due to these 3 reasons; other sectors too. Add the niche strategy that Australia has used for decades via agriculture, mining, etc and that would be the 4th failure-putting all its eggs into 1 basket for decades instead of using the diversification strategy.
Let’s start with the tertiary education sector which few years back was Australia’s 3rd largest export sector (now 4th). How does it survive? Foreign students especially from China and India though lately South Americans, North Americans and Europeans too. How many Australians have a university qualification? Australia population represents 0.3% of the world population and just 25% of that have a university qualification. How many have a Masters qualification? Not many. Some to most firms in Australia consider Masters overqualified. Well, sad news for 90 to 99% of the businesses in Australia that represent small to medium sized ones – rest of the world have people who have either 2 Master qualifications or PhDs and professional certifications. Unless, good at entrepreneurship, not needed to study. Sadly, for Australia, that has gone behind especially when it’s niche strategy also got busted because Australia has been behind with innovations and technologies since World War 2. Also, how many foreign exchange students from Australia land in Asia? Not many compared to ones from US, Canada, UK, etc. So, those countries are learning about Asian cultures where as most Australian foreign students land in US, UK, etc (psychically close countries instead of the psychically distant countries as well). US, UK universities are still the best in the world and most are cheaper than the Australian ones nowadays as Australia’s become expensive for that so the universities that are on the same level as Australia are now the challengers. Which are those countries? Canada, Germany, Japan, Singapore, China (mainland and HK), etc. Addition to those, there are the blended learning (online) and MOOCs that are challenging the educational landscape, starting from primary education right unto tertiary one.
Where is Australia for innovations and technologies? The country doesn’t encourage much of both including funding which is the reason why Australian startups end up in USA. Australia gets 75% of its GDP through services as it’s a developed nation though it has come out with some innovations but not that many compared to the rest of the world even with the basic innovations. Others have gone for coopetition like Apple,Samsung,Google,etc;Netflix and Amazon;Tesla and various automobile firms and so many others where rivals don’t just work together but innovate as well. Australia has zilch there. Then there is the blue ocean strategy as well where not only low cost innovations occur but a whole new market segment comes up. Rest of the world so many while Australia hardly any. . Even New Zealand is above Australia when it comes to innovation.
Taking marketing technology/digital marketing as the industry, here are some weaknesses including reasons why Australia has failed (they’re all genuine articles that have come up in the last few weeks to couple of months):
In Australia, what would be the reality for Marketing Technology or Digital Marketing? The answer to that question could be seen from a number of genuine sources including articles ranging from the last few weeks to about a year, some of which are (same for other sectors too and not just marketers as shown under 7th and other points):
1) Marketer study warns of skills shortages in digital marketing in Australia
2) Two-thirds of Aus marketers ‘aren’t effective at digital’
3) Aussie brands failing to embrace digital real-time customer service
4) Lack of skills a threat to projects
5) Is Australia That Far Behind in the Digital Market?
6) Big data policies lacking in Australian and New Zealand organisations: survey
7) Australian firms lagging behind
8 ) Australian retailers are digital-relationship laggards: Capgemini & Sydney University study reveals
9) Australian SMEs not meeting consumers on social media: statistics from Yellow Pages report
10) PayPal: Only 14 Percent of Australian SMEs Are Taking Advantage of Online
11) Latest ABS statistics: many Australian businesses still not engaging online
12) Australian businesses struggling with cross-channel marketing
13) Australian manufacturers are failing to invest in productivity raising IT: study
14) Average of 44 small businesses closing their doors each day, according to Australian Bureau of Statistics data
15) Experts say Australian business being left behind
16) Small Business Left Behind As Australian Business Confidence Lifts: NAB
17) Australian small businesses are late to the online marketing party
18) Too little, too late: Is Australia losing the online retail game?
Some of the reasons for the above could be seen from the following:
1) Can Australia’s education system meet demand for digital marketers? (Even top universities of Australia are way behind compared to counterparts from US, UK, Canada, etc where students can take subjects from different schools like Arts, Engineering, Business, etc. Additionally, some Australian universities still teach traditional subjects at universities [The two university comparison examples can be University of Sydney via Commerce degree and WUSTL of US both via Marketing major]).
2) Aussie women lag behind men in numeracy skills
3) Aussies spend big on technology, but don’t know how to use it
4) Small Business Nation 2013 – Around 90 to 99% of the businesses in Australia are small to medium sized ones though most are neither innovative nor have much of technology (not tech savvy)
5) Australia is Well Behind Other OECD Countries in Pre-School Education
6) University rankings show Asian rise and Australian slip
7) Australian students slipping behind in maths, reading: OECD report
8 ) If Australia Could Get Over Its ‘Fear of Failure’ Tech Startup Firms Could Contribute $109B to Economy by 2033, Create 540,000 New Jobs – Google Study
9) Australia is no innovation leader: GE (connected to Australia lifts ranking in Global Innovation Index, but still lags behind New Zealand).
10) Australia at risk of squandering expat expertise as brain drain hits reverse
11) Is Australia Less Tech-Savvy than We Thought?
More of the marketing weaknesses in last 1 year and a bit on the logistics and supply chain in relation to Australia can be found under http://loveroftechnologyandbus.....s-and.html . It also has the components or landscapes of Marketing Technology and Digital Marketing. Also mentioned is the Brand valuation that could be seen via BrandZ of WPP as well as Interbrand of Omnicom and brandirectory.com that is part of Brand Finance. The top brand from Australia would be Woolworths ranked in the 100s way behind the ones from US, UK, Canada, India, China, etc. Woolworths and Coles duopoly in the supermarket sector though IGA, Aldi and Costco are 3 other players there ( https://theconversation.com/factcheck-is-our-grocery-market-one-of-the-most-concentrated-in-the-world-16520). Zara as well as others are knocking DJ and Myer ( http://www.fool.com.au/2013/08.....ry-afraid/ ). All of them have failed with innovation and technology (just like most Australian industrial sector) which can be seen under http://www.afr.com/p/australia.....ZG4VotdITL .
US at least did something with 3D and 4D printing-part of disruptive innovation that could challenge emerging and developing nations;what has Australia come out with.US manufacturing also fell into recession 30 years back but came out 10 years later with innovation-Intel is 1 proof of that and that video is ‘Made in USA’ under America Revealed under PBS.org. Innovation took over 30 years back from customer centric approach started by P&G,IBM,etc that went on to Google,FB,etc and that’s world’s top firms and ones that survive depend on innovation and technologies. Also, if going to say robotics, well most jobs that exist today won’t exist in 10 years time thanks to technologies-need to adapt and change. China, Japan, etc have robot chefs. Self service revolution has existed for more than a century-ATMs, kiosks at airports, etc as well as retail sector are proof of that+3D and 4D printing +blended learning that has gone online as well as MOOCs which includes Coursera and Udacity are changing educational landscape from primary to tertiary education [US,UK and Australian top unis have their courses there and it can be done for free without certificates but if want certificates, they are cheaper than traditional education though not all courses are under the MOOCs] and so on including hybrid trade shows. DVD rentals are backward technologies that rest of the world came up with a decade or 2 ago as there are Netflix, Hulu,etc.
Australia’s way behind in technology and innovations-both marketing and supply chain + also transportation as it’s got on to mobile payments which rest of the developed world have been on for about a decade-some of the emerging nations have been on it for 5 to 10 years also.
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The fail of these two major retailers to get an online presence running successfully is quite extraordinary.They both impact heavily on the Australian economic scene, including the marketing and advertising industries. Their in-store woes are echoed in social media everywhere.
Instead of positive online experiences for the Australian consumer, whose expectations would be based on their so-called leader position, you now have a wary and disappointed dialogue.
There seems to be no understanding or care of their prime position in this small country’s retail industry. Myer have managed to send a very nasty ripple across the entire retail scene. Instead of a flourishing and healthy cross-over from online experience to store visit, or vice versa, they have left a mess.
Good luck for the damage control campaign.
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Call it what you will.. But to me it is the continuously short sighted profiteering of the golden years for Myer and David Jones that has now led to the cause of their essential business blindness. Neither the Myer or DJ’s board clearly have had any appetite for change or investment for the last decade or so and are now pathetically clinging on to their legacies, political connections (Stop the boats, stop the imports!) and Blackberries which they probably also think are still in demand.
Never mind the lackies in both camps – i’m sure there is some great talent there, but like many Australian public companies (Qantas another great/sad example), sacking the board would be the best solution to begin making change and actually become customer focussed, sustainable businesses. But lets face it, that ain’t going to happen. What’s the saying “This fish stinks from the head down?”.
Farewell DJ’s and Myer scale and profits. You’ve only got the boards to blame.
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There’s a really simple solution that neither of these giants seems to have considered.
Buy up one of the smaller more successful online retailers and use their expertise, technology and processes…….really simple, really quick and probably a lot less expensive than destroying their own brand.
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Good article. It’s pretty telling when you can now order clothing online from M&S. I gave it a try last Monday just to see…….at the same time I ordered something via one of the two giants above. The M&S item, 40% cheaper & much better quality for exactly the same type of product is now about my person as I write this. There is absolutely no sign of the item from the local mob……
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It’s like I often say:
The retailers AND the terrestrial TV stations are like the person jumpiing off a 100 storey building.
They can say “I’m not dead” over and over as they plummet past the 90th floor, the 50th floor, the 20th floor… but, you know what?
It might be true as they plummet ever downwards – but it isn’t true for long, and NOT true for ever.
Myer and DJ’s will go the same way as Farmers, Gowings, Mark Foys and others.
Anachronisms in a modern online world.
Chumps!
The sad thing is, they were warned.
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Great article! Australian retailers are so behind the online curve. I ordered some items from Big W in December. When I called customer service on Christmas Eve, I was told my entire order was being held until a pre-order item was released in February 2014. I found it hard to believe that they did that as a standard business practice. Naturally, the order was cancelled.
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Marks & Sparks have a great online offering (for an old school bricks and mortar retailer). Great navigation, experience and fast shipping.
Asos and The Iconic (for local clothes). Uk and US sites are key for savings. Just ship to a ‘re-shipper’ if that makes sense if certain brands restrict shipping to Oz.
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WOW!! @thomas
Im sure you have many many interesting points in your incredibly long post.
sadly due to being a part of the internet generation, i can only hold my attention for a few lines of any blog.
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