He Who Hesitates…

By Gerald McGrew on January 21, 2011 in Other

In an article about online retailing from March last year I quoted Gerry Harvey as saying in 2008 that it was all “a complete waste of time”.

What a total dick.

If only he’d spent less time on Today Tonight and A Current Affair bouncing up and down on discounted mattresses and faux-orgasming over the latest 3D flat screens. If only he’d bothered making a website that sold things, rather than becoming another retailer who sold interest-free finance for lounge suites. If only most of our major local retailers hadn’t been in e-commerce denial for the last few years we wouldn’t have to put up with the cacophony of retail whining we now see on the evening news.

No, this isn’t a shot at Gerry. My dad worked with him flogging carpet in the ‘70s and he’s been an inspirational Aussie example of a very smart small businessman who has worked his bum off and scaled dizzying heights over forty years. However, the present generation of business students may look on his next four years as being rather apocalyptic for his currently sturdy – and oh-so-conventional – retail business model.

You see the time-poor and cost-conscious consumer mentality in a post-GFC world, combined with a strong Skippy dollar and massive improvements in the science of selling online, has led to a perfect storm for retailers both large and small. And the bad news is that the train has almost left the station. The irony of the current predicament our retailers find themselves in is that only the largest players have the capital and resources to catch up quickly – and they’re the ones making the most noise about how unfair the new online competition is (which has taken 5-10 years to arrive overnight).

I’m obviously passionate about this topic, for no reason other than our best and brightest retailers have perhaps missed a massive opportunity. This isn’t an overseas price-based assault on our local businesses as some would like us to believe, driven by a smallish tax advantage on online purchases of $1000 or less. Plenty of progressive and agile Australian retailers cleaned up in 2010 after building their online sales capability during the last couple of years. They simply made the most of the new consumer climate.

This is another great example of how the Internet can bring about substantial change in a crazily short timeframe and traditional thinkers can be caught out just as quickly. Just ask your friendly global media proprietor who is now trying to charge for his online news, or the guy who bought MySpace when Facebook was just a website for uni students to perve on each other. And note that this is the same person.

Anyway, it’s always important to finish on a positive note, and the fact is it’s not all gloom and doom for our local retail champions. As I said, the big guys can afford the big e-commerce investment and the small-to-medium crowd can get their wares online cheaper and easier than ever before. However, what is non-negotiable is that retailers need to innovate and try new things online in 2011.

After all, if my mates can sell their crap online via eBay then so can any of the 150 homewares