12 December 2016

Can any of our local online retailers compete with the service we can get overseas?

| Emily Morris
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Last week, I ordered a few things from Marks & Spencer online (M&S is possibly the thing I miss most about living in the UK). They had free international delivery on orders over 30 pounds which was a bit of a bonus. To my great delight and surprise, after placing the order on Monday evening, a parcel arrived on my doorstep on Friday morning. From the UK – with no delivery cost.

This made me wonder why it is so hard to come across this sort of service within our fair shores. For online shopping, delivery prices are high and sites are often ‘clunky’ to use. I had assumed that delivery charges were so much lower in the UK due to government subsidy on their postal service, but the M&S order arrived via DHL Express, which isn’t subsidised (as far as I’m aware).

The only local online ordering experience that has come anywhere near this is Birdsnest, which is a fashion retailer based out of Cooma. The site and service is efficient and friendly, but even they couldn’t match the free delivery.

I do have a desire to keep my money within the country. Has anyone had a great local (as in Australian) online experience that they care to share?

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Queanbeyanite10:26 pm 19 Feb 15

The POMs don’t have a minimum wage and have lots of eastern european workers making a lot more than they would at home.

Here we price our low productivity poor out of a job and pay them to stay at home.

Grimm said :

Would be interested to know what kind of product it was?
I’ve never seen an Australian appliance retailer with prices even close to theirs, with or without delivery included, and especially not a bricks and mortar retailer.

Masters hardware will match an online price (as long as it includes delivery). I don’t think they’ll actually deliver it to your house for that price, but I’ve got my own truck so I’ve never actually asked. I prefer to pick my stuff up from a physical store because you then have somewhere local to go back to with warranty issues.

Madam Cholet8:22 am 15 Feb 15

I was going to pick up the product myself from the more expensive retailer. What should I do, cost my time? They did not have a formula for that and decided to ignore me.

Felix the Cat2:00 pm 13 Feb 15

Madam Cholet said :

Grimm said :

rosscoact said :

Thats true, I’ve bought every appliance in for the past few years from Appliances online, great customer service.

Have done the same thing. Appliances Online are great to deal with and MUCH cheaper than local retailers.

A couple of years ago I was looking for a new fridge. Got it from Appliances Online for just over $1000 less than any local retailer could do. Delivery was also either free or stupidly cheap, and it comes all the way from sydney by the ext business day usually.. Local retailers wanted around 100 bucks to deliver it literally 10 minutes up the road, and I would have to wait a week or more. Really no competition. Have bought a bunch of stuff from them since.

I tried to get a product price matched with AO. Firstly they include the delivery in the price match which is bollocks and secondly when I pushed the issue with the operator he refused to communicate with me. I will try to avoid them where possible. Good Guys are ok to deal with in person even if they are not the cheapest.

Delivery is charge is part of the price, part of the cost of the item, why wouldn’t they include that? Not comparing apples with apples if you don’t. The item might be $500 plus $50 delivery so the item costs $550. If Joe Blow Appliances sell same item for $480 plus $100 delivery then the total cost of the item is $580.

I bought a microwave oven from Good Guys a while back (via eBay) and even taking into account the delivery fee Good Guys were cheaper all up than Appliances Online (who didn’t charge delivery). I think I ordered it on the weekend and received it by about Wednesday. I’ve ordered from AO previously and they’ve been good too, just on this occasion eBay/Good guys were having some special on which made the price slightly cheaper.

Hi All,

Touchy subject this one. I agree that the local service offering from most Aussie domiciled retailers is crap, and we have put up with this inferior service for many years, way too long.

Now we don’t have to, thanks to online shopping. And consumers are voting with their mouse.

The only thing that’s saving these retailers is a deteriorating $A. Once it goes below $US0.60, imports get expensive.

Agree Appliances Online is an exception. Webpage is great, always have stock & can’t beat prices or rapid delivery. The local retailers will price match, and I’m now using them because I want to ensure my children have options in the future by supporting the local economy…

Madam Cholet11:05 am 12 Feb 15

From memory it was a chest freezer. I’ve never found their prices cheap enough to make me feel welded to getting anything from them. The customer service experience put me off full stop.

Madam Cholet said :

Grimm said :

rosscoact said :

Thats true, I’ve bought every appliance in for the past few years from Appliances online, great customer service.

Have done the same thing. Appliances Online are great to deal with and MUCH cheaper than local retailers.

A couple of years ago I was looking for a new fridge. Got it from Appliances Online for just over $1000 less than any local retailer could do. Delivery was also either free or stupidly cheap, and it comes all the way from sydney by the ext business day usually.. Local retailers wanted around 100 bucks to deliver it literally 10 minutes up the road, and I would have to wait a week or more. Really no competition. Have bought a bunch of stuff from them since.

I tried to get a product price matched with AO. Firstly they include the delivery in the price match which is bollocks and secondly when I pushed the issue with the operator he refused to communicate with me. I will try to avoid them where possible. Good Guys are ok to deal with in person even if they are not the cheapest.

Would be interested to know what kind of product it was?
I’ve never seen an Australian appliance retailer with prices even close to theirs, with or without delivery included, and especially not a bricks and mortar retailer.

Madam Cholet, if you are willing to pay more than the cheapest price for something, that is up to you.

But, most people prefer to pay less and have money left over for other things. We are not talking about sentimental purchases here. I will happily pay more for a fabulous meal in a good restaurant for an important anniversary. But, for a fridge? Nup.

Madam Cholet4:17 pm 11 Feb 15

Grimm said :

rosscoact said :

Thats true, I’ve bought every appliance in for the past few years from Appliances online, great customer service.

Have done the same thing. Appliances Online are great to deal with and MUCH cheaper than local retailers.

A couple of years ago I was looking for a new fridge. Got it from Appliances Online for just over $1000 less than any local retailer could do. Delivery was also either free or stupidly cheap, and it comes all the way from sydney by the ext business day usually.. Local retailers wanted around 100 bucks to deliver it literally 10 minutes up the road, and I would have to wait a week or more. Really no competition. Have bought a bunch of stuff from them since.

I tried to get a product price matched with AO. Firstly they include the delivery in the price match which is bollocks and secondly when I pushed the issue with the operator he refused to communicate with me. I will try to avoid them where possible. Good Guys are ok to deal with in person even if they are not the cheapest.

rosscoact said :

breda said :

rossco, the thing is that I never went near a showroom to buy my TV (which I am very happy with). The whole thing – sussing out models and prices, looking at reviews etc, was done online. While there probably are people who go to a shop to look at products, I can’t understand why they bother.

The exception might be something like a lounge suite, or a bed, which you might want to try IRL before buying. But especially for things like appliances, why would you bother shlepping round the shops?

I’m the same with most big items but things like clothes and shoes are good to try on if possible.

Yes, especially shoes. I have enough trouble finding shoes that fit well when trying them on, that I would never consider ordering them online.

breda said :

rossco, the thing is that I never went near a showroom to buy my TV (which I am very happy with). The whole thing – sussing out models and prices, looking at reviews etc, was done online. While there probably are people who go to a shop to look at products, I can’t understand why they bother.

The exception might be something like a lounge suite, or a bed, which you might want to try IRL before buying. But especially for things like appliances, why would you bother shlepping round the shops?

I’m the same with most big items but things like clothes and shoes are good to try on if possible.

rosscoact said :

Thats true, I’ve bought every appliance in for the past few years from Appliances online, great customer service.

Have done the same thing. Appliances Online are great to deal with and MUCH cheaper than local retailers.

A couple of years ago I was looking for a new fridge. Got it from Appliances Online for just over $1000 less than any local retailer could do. Delivery was also either free or stupidly cheap, and it comes all the way from sydney by the ext business day usually.. Local retailers wanted around 100 bucks to deliver it literally 10 minutes up the road, and I would have to wait a week or more. Really no competition. Have bought a bunch of stuff from them since.

I have little issue with Australia-based online outlets across the board. Usually get my stuff within a couple of business days. I don’t see the problem.

I always get good service from Skater’s Network in Sydney. I order and get the item delivered in a couple of days for $10.00 for whatever it is I’ve ordered.

HiddenDragon6:09 pm 10 Feb 15

There certainly are things that Australian retailers could do better – at times, I wonder why some even bother having an online presence, because what they offer is so clunky and falls so far short of reasonable expectations.

On the other hand…..I do find it more than a little ironic when I hear Australians (particularly Canberrans) griping about how much better overseas retailers are, and demanding that local retailers, including of the bricks and mortar variety, match the best international prices.

Taking the case of the UK, you have a market of more than double, closer to triple, the size of the Australian market, crammed into a land mass comparable to Victoria – so much more scope for local efficiencies of scale which can then be built on for international markets. And then there are business costs – I wonder how many Canberrans would be happy to accept the living standards and working conditions of the people who work in the big warehouses which make it possible for the international retailers to offer such good deals? The other critical business cost is accommodation, which is very, very expensive (by world standards) in Australian capital cities – the same is true for parts of the UK, but not the parts where the online retail warehouses are located.

As this piece illustrates, Australians are pretty good at finding better/cheaper alternatives to local offerings, but sadly, we are not nearly so good at earning the foreign exchange to pay for it – which is why we have continued to run large current account and trade deficits even with an epic mining export boom. We should probably make the most of the international smorgasbord while it lasts!

rossco, the thing is that I never went near a showroom to buy my TV (which I am very happy with). The whole thing – sussing out models and prices, looking at reviews etc, was done online. While there probably are people who go to a shop to look at products, I can’t understand why they bother.

The exception might be something like a lounge suite, or a bed, which you might want to try IRL before buying. But especially for things like appliances, why would you bother shlepping round the shops?

breda said :

I bought my TV online from a warehouse outfit in Brisbane a couple of years ago (can’t remember the name just now).

It was significantly cheaper than the same model from Hardly Normal in Fyshwick, and HN also charge for delivery.

There was no extra delivery charge, and I ordered it on Tuesday and got it on Friday.

It’s well worth checking out these kinds of places rather than the big stores, which mostly just apply the same inefficiencies to their online services as they do to their shops. Although, I have heard that JB HiFi are pretty good.

Thats true, I’ve bought every appliance in for the past few years from Appliances online, great customer service. My last two TVs came from Big Brown Box, again exceptional customer service.

The major advantage that traditional shops have over the online only shops is showrooms. They complain about multi-channel shoppers yet they have multi-channels. They effectively have warehouses and distribution channels across the country. Buy a pair of shoes online? Great, get somebody from your local shop to deliver them on the way home. No overseas or online only outlet can beat that and I’ll bet that the shopper will come into the local shop next time.

If only they would realise that and stop segmenting their operations they could beat online only and overseas shops at their own game. The good ones already are.

I bought my TV online from a warehouse outfit in Brisbane a couple of years ago (can’t remember the name just now).

It was significantly cheaper than the same model from Hardly Normal in Fyshwick, and HN also charge for delivery.

There was no extra delivery charge, and I ordered it on Tuesday and got it on Friday.

It’s well worth checking out these kinds of places rather than the big stores, which mostly just apply the same inefficiencies to their online services as they do to their shops. Although, I have heard that JB HiFi are pretty good.

Madam Cholet3:53 pm 10 Feb 15

I order from Next Direct and Boden Online because their delivery is never more than 5 days and they actually tell you when it will be delis red. Both are UK companies but all with an Australian presence. Returns go to an australian address and they don’t make a fuss. Boden stuff arrives in three days. Next Direct is priced like Traget but better quality. I get all my sons clothes and shoes there.

Australian stuff is too expensive and would not active in 5 days.

I haven’t tried Marks and Sparks….I’ll probably have to check that out. Can you order their sandwiches online?!!

The large australian online stores are woeful as well. I often have at least a weeks wait from anything ordered online. Yet overseas small companies are able to provide a better service as well.

I’ve ordered wine from a Melbourne retailer on a Wednesday morning, packed in a coolbox and had it delivered to my Manuka office on a Thursday. The gel freezer blocks were still frozen.

Grail said :

So no, local businesses will never be able to compete with large corporation’s cheap shipping.

But the locals could try a bit harder. About the only thing saving them now is the falling Australian dollar.

Amazon can ship me a new book all the way from the USA to my parcel locker for less than it costs me to ship that same book, in its unopened carton, to myself at that parcel locker from the local post office.

Larger companies get much cheaper postal rates, and in some cases it is worth their while to sell and ship an item to small purchasers at a loss in order to maintain shipping volumes. The equation roughly works out as “is the loss we make from dozens of little orders worth less than the expenses incurred by dropping to the next-lower rank of shipments-per-day?”

So no, local businesses will never be able to compete with large corporation’s cheap shipping.

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