Online ease or personal touch
There has been a lot of David Jones labelled bags being walked up and down Wellington’s Lambton Quay in the past month.
The Australian department store opened its first New Zealand shop in Wellington at the end of July. It was an interesting move when online retailers like Asos and Amazon seem to have lured a whole generation away from traditional shopping.
David Jones sells online, but only in Australia, In New Zealand, as yet, you have to shop the traditional way.
Online shopping has increased exponentially in the past few years. Between 2013 and 2014 there was a 40 per cent increase of internet purchasing in New Zealand.
The massive increase may be because some businesses such as accommodation providers, airlines and ticketing agencies are actively pushing us to purchase online.
But a growing comfort with online shopping, which has enabled us to do serious damage to our credit cards without leaving the house, is a concerning trend for traditional shopping centres. And there are a few shopping centres around the country that are starting to look like ghost towns.
Want a blue coat? Just Google it. Type the genre of a book and find your online library. Why would you bother to go to a shop?
With shopping habits changing so quickly, retail centres and shopping malls will need to think innovatively about creating a shopping experience as a whole new generation takes to online purchasing.
Online shopping means no parking issues and avoiding crowds and incompetent shop assistants. It means I can do my supermarketing from my own table with a glass of wine in my hand.
Of course traditional shopping has advantages too. It offers instant gratification if you want something immediately. You can see touch and try the product and you can receive personalised human contact unavailable online.
There are so many choices of how to shop that both traditional shops and websites will need to keep offering reasons to choose them.
Online retailers must keep making it easy; easy to purchase, easy to get delivered and easy to send back.
Traditional retailers must offer everything that online shopping can’t. Many will offer both. But what is very clear is that retailers need to be more aware of customer requirements than ever before.
We’ll always go back to somewhere we’ve had a good experience.
One of my favourite stores in Raumati is a perfect example of what modern shopping should be. The owner knows my name, what I’ve bought before, even my colours.
Shopping there is like a teenage sleepover - you get to play dress ups without pressure to buy. But it’s so much fun, buy is exactly what you do.
It’s in the interest of sales assistants to provide a shopping experience. There are predictions 10 per cent to 20 per cent of salespeople, especially those who are selling a simple product with a short sales cycle, will lose their jobs in the next 20 years.
I shudder to think what our communities would be without shopping areas as the centre. We need to support our traditional retailers, but, in turn, they need to meet our changing needs.
I was one of many who visited David Jones in its first weeks of opening. I tried on some trousers that looked great on the hanger and hideous on me.
‘‘At least now you know,’’ the sales assistant said. ’’That’s why you shouldn’t shop on line.’’
Touche. Cas Carter is a marketing, branding and public relations specialist.
Traditional retailers must offer everything that online shopping can't.