Published on January 05, 2011 Be in it to win it – be online to sell it
One thing the ridiculous Gerry Harvey “online shopping war” disaster has done, besides embarrass Harvey Norman, Myer, Witchery and the other stores who participated in it, is to drive more people online. It’s brought the advantages of the industry to the attention of consumers who were otherwise unaware of the shopping advantages that were there to be had. Sure, many will shop overseas, but the market will have grown and ultimately that will mean more sales for Australian businesses who really know how to compete.
In marketing speak, this is called “stimulating primary demand”. It’s about growing the size of the entire market to help yourselves, even if it helps some of your competitors too.
Ultimately, you are in business to compete and if the market changes you have to change with it. There are 1400+ comments on the news.com.au story about this scaremongering advertising campaign launched by Harvey Norman and 2000+ other retail stores, and if you read them they speak pretty much in unison: people are shopping online because regular retail stores have disillusioned them. Many shop on price, but that’s not definitely the only factor.
And one big point to note is that people aren’t shopping online just to get the latest “big brands” from the US: they are shopping online for the variety they can’t satisfy in Australia.
If Australian businesses can compete on the other factors and are reasonably competitive on price, there’s no reason that consumers won’t support them. It’s the way competition works. It’s the way business works.
If you want to reach these customers, you need to be online, advertising and fulfilling your business online. So why not start today with Ozcart.
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