{"id":44614,"date":"2023-10-20T15:37:13","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:37:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/online-retail-rich-with-opportunity-federal-mp-paul-fletcher-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T15:37:13","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:37:13","slug":"online-retail-rich-with-opportunity-federal-mp-paul-fletcher-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/online-retail-rich-with-opportunity-federal-mp-paul-fletcher-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"Online retail \u201crich with opportunity\u201d: Federal MP Paul Fletcher – StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/div>\n

The Australian retail sector is undergoing \u201cenormous disruption\u201d thanks to online competitors but the local online retail landscape in Australia \u201cis rich with opportunity\u201d, according to Paul Fletcher, parliamentary secretary for the federal Minister of Communications.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Delivering the first keynote address at the two-day Online Retailer Conference and eCommerce Expo at Sydney\u2019s Hordern Pavilion this morning, Fletcher spoke about some of the major disruptions facing the Australian retail industry.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

But Fletcher also focused on how retailers are responding to some of these challenges and \u201cseizing the moment\u201d and how the \u201conline retail landscape in Australia is rich with opportunity\u201d.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Fletcher said the Australian retail sector was undergoing \u201cenormous disruption\u201d because of the same factor influencing many other Australian industries \u2013 the internet.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cWhile the internet has disrupted retail in almost every country in the world, I\u2019d argue here in Australia that disruption has been reinforced by two important factors,\u201d Fletcher said.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cFirstly, to be frank, the fact for many years Australian retail was a bit behind the world\u2019s best and, secondly, the fact that Australian customers have become much more sophisticated and demanding over the past three years or so.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Fletcher told those at the conference that until the 1990s, Australian retail was significantly immune to international competition, while most consumers had little practical opportunity to buy from such retailers.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cMost did not know what they were missing out on,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

But Fletcher says this meant retail in Australia was particularly vulnerable to disruption from online offerings.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cThat vulnerability has been reinforced by Australian customers demanding much higher levels of service,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cBroader economic factors over the past 30 years have made Australian customers wealthier, more sophisticated, more knowledgeable and more demanding.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

He cited Deloitte\u2019s recent report on digital consumption, which suggested Australian customers were among those with the highest levels of digital engagement in the world.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cIncreasingly, as a result of the factors I\u2019ve talked about, customers have looked to online retail offerings to meet their requirements, and of course that\u2019s both Australian and overseas retailers,\u201d Fletcher said.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

However, he believes both big and smaller players in the local retail industry have been doing a \u201cvery good job\u201d of responding to the disruption, including the enthusiastic adoption of tap-and-go payment technology.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the things we\u2019re now seeing is an increased uptake of cashless payments and the line blurring between traditional retail and online shopping,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Fletcher said that line was blurring in other ways too, referring to a recent trip to the US, where he saw a \u201cclear trend for better integration between online sales channels and physical store networks\u201d.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cRecently in Australia we\u2019ve seen a rise in big retailers offering click and collect services, where customers shop online and then pick up the item from a store or a pick-up location,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Fletcher said there were also success stories in the reverse, with online retailers such as Shoes of Prey making the move into traditional storefronts.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

He also spoke about the growth of mobile commerce and how online retail will increasingly be an \u201cexporter\u2019s story\u201d in times to come.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

He left the retailers in the audience with encouragement, but also a warning: don\u2019t miss the boat.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cThe work you\u2019re doing in Australia\u2019s online retail sector is important and it\u2019s exciting, consumers are voting with their feet and going online,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cI make the completely bold and risk-free prediction this is a trend that will only increase.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

SmartCompany attended the Online Retail Conference as a guest of Australia Post.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Australian retail sector is undergoing \u201cenormous disruption\u201d thanks to online competitors but the local online retail landscape in Australia<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":59167,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,23,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44614"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44614"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44614\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59167"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}