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.
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.
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.
@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.