By Steve Rowen, Partner
4/1/2008
Our industry is positively abuzz with how booming the eCommerce channel has become worldwide. In fact, just today, RSR is launching its brand new cross-channel report, Finding the Integrated Multi-channel Retailer. The report focuses on how vital it is for winning retailers to create a seamless shopping experience in order to take advantage of double-digit growth online sales projections.
But the message doesn’t seem to be getting through in one part of the world.
The Sydney Morning Herald ran an interesting piece this morning, saying that Australians are actively avoiding shopping online. Why? Because Australian retailers’ e-presence is well behind the curve.
A survey of more than 1200 consumers Australian consumers teased out that a small percentage of Aussies blame markedly slow broadband speeds for their lack of desire to shop online. Respondents also indicated that web-design and product presentation are sorely lacking, citing that “Retailer sites in Australia are little more than catalogue pages on the web,” and that “few sell anything online and most offer no integrated services between stores and sites.”
Yet the overwhelming majority cited issues related to returning unwanted merchandise – including retailers’ difficult return policies (47 percent) and high postage rates (32 percent) for delivery both ways as the cause of their hesitance to pony up while in front of a PC.
The study was conducted by The Leading Edge, a consultant firm based in Sydney. Phil Bonanno, the company’s director of retail was quoted to say, “It is perceived as more difficult to return an item and less certain to be able to do so in the first place.” He went on to say “You don't have the fabled return policies that you get in the US, where there are no questions asked.”
Our new report had a very strong participation from European respondents, particularly in the UK, only three percent of our survey results came from Asia Pacific.
Yet, while our report indicates how many challenges US and EU retailers face in the complicated task of aligning all of their sales channels, surely a return policy is a much easier adjustment to make. Clearly, a near-term greenfield opportunity exists for Australia-based retailers who make a concerted effort to understand their customers’ demands. Particularly since 4 out of 5 consumers surveyed indicated that they like to shop online – just from more trusted and sophisticated overseas sites such as Tesco, Bestbuy, Walmart and Ebay.
Of course, modifying a return policy alone will not serve as silver bullet for those Aussie shoppers gun-shy to purchase online. But at 47% of the findings, it seems a highly logical starting point. Once rectified, Australia-based retailers still have their work cut out for them.
“Most websites lack innovation, fail to engage the consumer and offer nothing new or exciting. In effect, Australian consumers are being short changed and given no reason to alter their purchasing habits and spend more online,” Bonanno went on to say. And those are far more difficult issue to tackle.
Editor’s Note: RSR will be launching its first ever global eCommerce specific benchmark: “Playing Well with Others: eCommerce’s Evolving Role in the Customer Experience.” Please look for it soon.
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