Remain unprepared, and Amazon and Netflix will devour your marketshare
Global behemoths Amazon and Netflix are a serious threat to Australian businesses. Why? In our fossilised media landscape, they have learned to evolve, writes Paul Broadfoot.
The onslaught of change has moved beyond simply hearing about it in our news and social media feeds, to impacting our buying behaviours and people we know.
Seven major fashion retailers have closed in Australia since the beginning of this year. Telstra has just announced it is shedding 1400 jobs. Roy Morgan Research reports that Netflix has the eyeballs of 5.75 million Australians, whilst Chanel Ten is in voluntary administration.
Digital technology and the change it engenders is exponential in nature. That means that whilst small beginnings are difficult to see, exponential growth over time, eventually brings the freak wave. When the wave makes shore, it does everything from give organisations wet feet, to erode old business models. In some cases, like Blockbuster, Kodak, Dick Smith, Sharp and Nokia there is a wipeout.
Enter the Elephant on the surfboard. Amazon is bringing their retail offering to Australia, and in their words, will deliver “low prices, vast selection, and fast delivery”. Their own growth has been following an exponential curve. Last year they grew just shy of US$30B to US$136B. That makes them 25 times larger than Harvey Norman by revenue and that’s without converting our AUD into USD.
