Retailers urged to market online

AUGUST 2010

A GOLD Coast e-commerce consultant has urged the retail industry to boost its online presence, with 45 per cent of web purchases going offshore due to a lack of local options.

MeMedia studio administration coordinator Jessica Gray, says Australia is behind the game when it comes to online retailing, but can learn from the US.

“Businesses are not keeping up with online demands of consumers, with statistics showing 45 per cent of purchases go off-shore because there’s more available and Australian retailers don’t have enough presence online,” she says.

“America, for example, has done everything else and seen what works so that gives us the benefit of hindsight – Amazon definitely set the standard which is great, they’ve figured out what consumers want and they give us great insight.

“JB Hi-Fi had a very big brand before they went online which worked well for them, they’ve been on top of the game on the web ahead of many competitors and I don’t see their stores shutting.”

Gray says most online sales tools serve to boost revenue rather than taking away sales from the stores themselves.

“The biggest fear for potential clients is that going on the internet will affect their offline sales, the bricks and mortar business, but what we’ve found is that one doesn’t affect the other in that sense,” she says.

“We always highly promote marketing the website, as just because you’ve got it that doesn’t mean it gets found – the other side of the coin is to make sure the client knows it’s around, using Google adwords for example and Twitter is an excellent tool too.”