Shoppers wake up to online retail bargains
Two thirds of consumers believe websites offer a better deal than physical retailers, a survey of shopper behaviour by Colmar Brunton suggests.
The announcement:
Monday 7th March – Australian retail failures such as the recent collapse of Borders Australia and Angus & Robertson will continue to occur unless retailers embrace online shopping, according to a new study into Australian shopping behaviour.
The research, conducted by market research firm Colmar Brunton, found that Australian consumers are frustrated with the limited online shopping options from national retailers, forcing more than half to choose to spend their money offshore with global competitors. Further, 2 in 5 believe Australia is behind the rest of the world when it comes to online retailing.
This is coupled with the exponential rise of online shopping, with 40 percent of Australians now conducting a significant amount of their shopping in the digital world.
“Many Australian retailers stayed away from online following the dotcom crash, while global competitors spotted opportunities. We’re now playing catch-up,” says Dr Steve Nuttall, Managing Director of Colmar Brunton Sydney.
“This is no longer about competing just on our turf. Global retailers are penetrating our borders without building a single store here. Australian retailers have had a view that the name of the game is bricks and mortar but while they have been focusing on this, other e-tailers are focusing on building trust with consumers .It’s not just about being price-competitive. Choice and convenience are huge drivers for consumers”
The research also found that while consumers now expect all retailers to offer online shopping offers, there is a growing disparity between what retailers are delivering. More than a quarter of consumers believed that they could buy online from Harvey Norman and Target, when actually they could not have done at the time.
“This just highlights how out of touch Australian retailers are with consumers who expect our leading brands to have a fully fledged e-tailing offer. But all too often, the value proposition isn’t there.” says Nuttall.
Convenience is the driving factor pushing people out of shopping centres and into online retail stores.
• 85 percent of consumers say they shop online purely because of convenience. Another 49 percent cited it also allowed them to avoid parking, traffic and shopping queues which come with Christmas shopping experience.
• 66 percent of consumers think you usually get a better deal online
• and 54 percent believe there is greater choice online compared to in-store
However the biggest barriers stopping people from spending more of their money online continue to be focused around security and post-sale customer service.
• 86 percent saying they will only shop from trusted websites
• 57 percent concerned about product quality
• 55 percent saying it is hard to get a refund.
The trust factor only serves to underline the huge online potential for flagship Australian brands.
Source: Colmar Brunton press release
I shop on line because we here in Australia get charged way to much for products that I can by from the US for $400-500 cheaper. Few months back I needed a speedlight (camera flash) unit for my camera. The unit sells in Australia for just over $900. I went online and found a US camera store that ships international where I got the same unit for $512USD converted that still is $400 cheaper. Until The Australian retailers and the Australian government look at reducing the cost of products in Australia then online shopping will be the killer blow.
Oh and don’t listen to the whole but Australia is to far from the rest of the world argument. It still comes from the same factory in Taiwan or China. If you look at a map Australia is closer then all the other country’s.
Face it people the Australian government are making a killing with all these taxes. First you have import tax, then duty tax then on top of all that there is the GST, the killer of them all. We are a highly taxed nation.
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I wanted to buy a camera. It’s not here in Australia for the most part, but do my local shops have preorder or any kind of link where they might get it for you? And if they did get it for you, maybe 6 weeks would pass before it was in your hands.
Next, Australian based online. yes they could get it,
However the online store based in the US, was hundreds of dollars cheaper. The camera was on the plane in 3 hours after order. went through New York, Maryland, kentucky, alaska, then incheon Korea, Shenzen in China (where it probably came from in the first place) then Singapore, then Perth. Ordered Thursay afternoon, delivered monday, despite having spent 12 hours in Singapore airport.
All this time my local camera shop had a picture of the camera with no preorder link and an indeterminate arrival for much more money.
They didn’t even give me a chance to be loyal to local.
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@Dan, Agree online shopping can be better and more faster if attempting to buy products which are not stocked in your local stores. Also don’t forget that local stores can’t provide the same price on some offers. Online retailers can offer an array of offers, sales discount codes as and when they wish.
It would be interesting what effect the likes of groupon and facebook local deals have on the buying pattern from the local store.
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