National Retailers In Australia Fail To Get Behind eBay
News released today from AAP backs up what we Aussie sellers have known for a long time.
Big Australian retailers have been very slow to pick up ecommerce.
It probably isn’t surprising given the national coverage of our larger retailers (different to the regionalised retailers in the USA wanting to extend their availability to a national online audience)
Sites like Walmart, Sears and many more in the US have online store offerings (with huge numbers of SKUs) but we have so far seen little similar investment in Australia.
I think the closest thing we have seen is a few companies like Dell moving refurbished equipment through outlets like eBay.com.au and Graysonline Auctions.
Over time we are sure to see some larger investment by the big box retailers here making these investments. But in our market at least, those waters are basically untested.
This situation has proved a boon for e-tailers like dealsdirect.com.au, oo.com.au, soldsmart.com.au and others appearing out of the woodwork.
There is obviously a big market out there willing to buy K-Mart style inventory online… so it will only be a matter of time before one of the national retailers puts their toe in the water… The question is, will they do it properly?
Maybe they’ll need to consult some online distribution experts to get it to happen smoothly :)
Yeah, Australia is always way behind the US and Europe when it comes to a lot of things. Don’t worry, it will happen in time.