mrhunt blogs

One thing that’s really disappointed me since I returned to New Zealand is the lack of online shopping. After 10 years in the UK I got very used to pretty much every shop in the country (and especially the major ones) having an online shopping portal. I kind of assumed that that’s what shops did and I can’t really understand why it’s not more prevalent here.

Back in the 90’s one of my favourite Kiwi brands, Ground Effect, had an online shop and it appeared that the trend was set to spread across all of NZ’s retail sector. The reasons for doing so are pretty obvious I’d I’ve thought. If you’re a goods producer you can sell directly to the public, with no mark up in prices by a retailer and you get to sell to the entire country as opposed to just the location of your shop (if you choose to you can sell to the entire planet!).

If you happen to be a retailer selling 3rd party products - say Harvey Norman for example - you can sell products, once again to the entire country, but also at the same price as your retail outlets but without the overheads of floor space and sales staff. Sure, you need to have a pretty robust e-tail solution but I’d be amazed if profits from goods sold online were less than those sold in high street stores.

So, what does Harvey Norman’s web site offer in the way of online shopping? Well, you can order photos online using a separate site (www.harveynormanphotos.co.nz) but that’s about it. None of their furniture, computing goods, bedding or electricals is available to buy, I can’t even check the price which, as a consumer, is arguably the most annoying problem.

I was recently in the market for a new modem router, I did some background research and decided on a shortlist of models I liked. In the UK, I would have simply used one of the dozens of price comparison sites to find the retailer who had it cheapest and bought it from them (either online or in store). However, in NZ I was forced to go to to the shops themselves and see what they had and at what price. Yes, I could have called on the phone and had a laborious conversation with a sales person trying to ascertain their stock, multiply that by the number of retailers and it becomes a pretty big job. However, at the end of the day I still would have had to venture out to go and buy the item - time consuming and potentially expensive.

I ended up doing the former and the visits to Harvey Norman, Noel Leeming, J&B HiFi, Dick Smith, etc. ended up taking most of the day. And no, a downloadable sales catalogue on the site isn’t really the answer, for starters it doesn’t list the whole range, only sale items.

There’s also the competition factor, I’d a thought a store that offers online shopping would immediately have an advantage over it’s competitors by being able to reach a much larger customer base. Not to mention any perceived increase in brand value by being a step ahead in technology.

So why aren’t more New Zealand shops offering their wares to purchase online? Depending on the size of your shop it certainly can be an expensive procedure to set up an online store, plus you have to factor in delivery. A smaller company like Ground Effect can get away with using the existing postal or courier service but a company with a huge number of large products, like Harvey Norman, would almost certainly have to provide it’s own network of delivery vehicles. These are obviously both large undertakings but I can’t help thinking that the access to every internet-connected consumer in the country would more than pay for it. Most furniture retailers will deliver to your home anyway.

In the UK, Ikea was one of the last major retailers to offer online shopping. They had a pretty valid reason (which I don’t think most NZ retailers can use) based on their entire worldwide sales system. Ikea likes to get people in the door knowing that even if you’ve only turned up to get a coffee table you’ll almost certainly leave with an entire car load of stuff. That same system may work in a supermarket (especially if you’re shopping whilst a bit peckish) but I don’t think that argument stands up for something like a modem router. I’m hardly going to go to Harvey Norman’s buy a router and also pick up a TV, a fridge and a BBQ. In my opinion sales would be stronger in NZ if shops offered the normal walk-in experience plus an online option. Regardless, Ikea soon worked out that they could sell to vastly more people in the UK if they offered online shopping and have since done so.

Perhaps it’s a cultural thing, maybe Kiwis just like getting in their cars and going to the shops but I’m not sure I believe that. Most people I know have more than enough to do, at home or out with friends or family, than to spend their precious time going from one store to another trying to find a set of pots and pans. Plus there’s the environmental impact of all those unnecessary car journeys. Maybe it’s a bandwidth or internet access issue? Well, NZ supposedly has one of the highest rates of household internet access in the OECD so I don’t believe that’s it.

Perhaps it’s just that we’re behind everyone else but are in the process of catching up? If that’s the case I hope it happens soon as I believe that online shopping could not only benefit the stores but is a real benefit to the consumer. Online shopping can be done at any time, is quick and convenient and most importantly frees up time to do other things - and surely there are more important things to do than shopping!