Wispa » eCommerce

No More Boundaries

admin — Wed, 20 May 2009 06:34:13 +0000

Some of the world’s top online retailers have been building strong customer bases in Australia over the last few years. Just think of Amazon, StrawberryNet and eBay.

Now here come the international bricks and mortar retailers with their online stores. JC Penney have recently launched an online store with an Australian website URL and owned by a locally established licensee. This foray into Australia begs the question as to whether other big name retailers are about to do the same.

Australians are the third biggest online consumers in the world pro-rata to population and while this is happening, some of our local retail giants like David Jones, Myer and Target have been slow to embrace online shopping. I’m sure this is about to all change.

While our local market is being eroded by international online players, what are our retailers doing to break in to international markets. While there are some novel Australian online retail entrepreneurs selling their products overseas, are traditional retailers tapping into this great emerging opportunity?

Let’s not wait for the big global players to encroach into our space. Local retailers should improve their online stores and look to grow their customer base in international markets. It’s all happening out there!

Virtual Merchandising Online

admin — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 05:57:19 +0000

Online consumers in Australia and New Zealand are consistently relying on the net for shopping alternatives, even during tougher economic times. eCommerce is a vital sales channel for so many businesses nowadays.

Remember the internet is not just a sales channel Down Under.

Like their American counterparts, more and more internet users in Australia are going online to research their purchases before buying in-store. The Australian Centre for Retail Studies (ACRS) has reported that up to one-half of consumers in Australia, did some online research before shopping in-store. That’s huge!

So I ask the following questions:

How well are your products or services merchandised online? Do you have lots of product information available?
How easy is it to navigate through the site while viewing products?
How well are your products grouped and displayed online?
Without the ability to touch and feel, do your photography and the use of online tools enable a multi dimensional display?
Overall, do they look attractive and inspirational?

In essence, the online product display needs to mirror all the tried and tested offline merchandising techniques. This is what we call Virtual Merchandising.

These presentation standards will certainly strengthen brand equity and maximize sales.