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Harvey Norman FAIL!

James

Top Contributor
How is this quote from Harvey Norman -

"Harvey Norman has been the pace-setter for an awful long time," Mr Harvey said. "They're kicking us on the internet at the moment but there's no history of anyone making money on it.
 

Shane

Top Contributor
How is this quote from Harvey Norman -

"Harvey Norman has been the pace-setter for an awful long time," Mr Harvey said. "They're kicking us on the internet at the moment but there's no history of anyone making money on it.

But when Gerry Harvey talks about making money, he's not talking about a few million, he's talking hundreds of millions. I think his point is that no one in Australia has become seriously wealthy ($100m+) from online retailing.
 

Timmy

Banned
But when Gerry Harvey talks about making money, he's not talking about a few million, he's talking hundreds of millions. I think his point is that no one in Australia has become seriously wealthy ($100m+) from online retailing.

Pretty sure Catchoftheday turns over more than $100m a year...
 

snoopy

Top Contributor
But when Gerry Harvey talks about making money, he's not talking about a few million, he's talking hundreds of millions. I think his point is that no one in Australia has become seriously wealthy ($100m+) from online retailing.

I would say the level of online shopping is probably too small for any individual to have made $100m+ in Australia from an online retail business. Then again when people do he'll have likely missed the boat.
 

James

Top Contributor
But when Gerry Harvey talks about making money, he's not talking about a few million, he's talking hundreds of millions. I think his point is that no one in Australia has become seriously wealthy ($100m+) from online retailing.

Isn't that Deals Direct crowd making like 50-100million range now?

Seek.com.au making millions?? (sure it not e-commerce)

deals website 50 million range (sure not e-commerce but close)

Not saying Gerry is a bad business man, I just think he has missed the boat with online....Why doesnt he just join it in a big way instead of acting like a fool... I mean it was only 2 years ago when he was talking smack about TV/radio and billboards killing online advertising...He now spends millions on online adverting...
 

Timmy

Banned
haha I'm hearing ya one. At the end of the day, his statement was calculated and intentionally fairly ambiguous and it achieved the desired result.

What Gerry does and doesn't do has very little bearing on what most of us do, yet we've all had a chop today LOL.

T
 

payattention

Archived Member
As much as I dislike Harvey Norman, I really hope their online venture succeeds because everyone will benefit. It'll open the door to people like my parents who refuse to shop online because they don't feel it's safe and they don't know companies like Kogan.

They know and trust HN and might be willing to browse their online store and purchase a few items. Once they do that, it'll get em hooked and they'll be buying all sorts of stuff from other online businesses. Next thing you know, they're booking holidays and applying for credit cards online... and spending my inheritance.
 

James

Top Contributor
As much as I dislike Harvey Norman, I really hope their online venture succeeds because everyone will benefit. It'll open the door to people like my parents who refuse to shop online because they don't feel it's safe and they don't know companies like Kogan.

They know and trust HN and might be willing to browse their online store and purchase a few items. Once they do that, it'll get em hooked and they'll be buying all sorts of stuff from other online businesses. Next thing you know, they're booking holidays and applying for credit cards online... and spending my inheritance.

This is a good point i will agree, Gerry does really pull in the mum and dad buyers...
 

Luke

Top Contributor
He's just pissed because the days of importing something shitty from china for a couple of hundred bucks and reselling it for 5 x the price are over - oh wait no they aren't? Not yet anyway...
 

FirstPageResults

Top Contributor
I have provided web dev and consulting for a few major retailers and they seem to have alot of the same issues holding them back from going online.

Namely pricing, distribution and wholesale politics... but also many of the old school retail kings know bricks and mortar so well that when they spend hundreds of thousands opening a new store the returns are fairly confidently projected, whilst online is foreign too them. I pushed most of them to invest only a fraction of those figures into ecommerce and whilst the marketing departments jumped at the chance, top level management quashed it time and time again.

I agree good to see a few major retailer making the move
 
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Personally I think online retailing doesn't go too well for bricks and mortar businesses because they do it wrong.

Take online grocery shopping for example - whilst it is taking off now, it still needs a major overhaul. Retailers think that the consumer should pay for the privilege of shopping online, so prices are more expensive than in store.

If you take out overheads of having a showroom floor and all the overheads that run it (sales staff, cleaning, equipment, utilities, etc) - why is it that we're paying more for 1 staff member to list the item on the website?

If GH took this into account, used his buying power and adjusted his margins - he'd be unbeatable online.

But none-the-less, GH is still a moron :D
 

James

Top Contributor
Personally I think online retailing doesn't go too well for bricks and mortar businesses because they do it wrong.

Take online grocery shopping for example - whilst it is taking off now, it still needs a major overhaul. Retailers think that the consumer should pay for the privilege of shopping online, so prices are more expensive than in store.

If you take out overheads of having a showroom floor and all the overheads that run it (sales staff, cleaning, equipment, utilities, etc) - why is it that we're paying more for 1 staff member to list the item on the website?

If GH took this into account, used his buying power and adjusted his margins - he'd be unbeatable online.

But none-the-less, GH is still a moron :D

It takes a lot more to run a huge website then just having 1 staff member to list items. especially a decent sized E-commerce store.

You need some one to manage the PPC/SEO, you need some one to Manage all the social efforts, you need a developer, you need some one to do copy writing their are then many more levels.

Look at Appliances Online they have a bunch of people doing these roles...
 
Hahaha obviously a bit of an understatement ;)

The point still stands that overheads online should (would) be lower than a bricks-and-mortar showroom. Especially considering that I'd imagine that a retailer the size of HN would likely already have resources of a graphic designer, copywriter, and webbie.

PPC/SEO/Social/et al are part of a marketing budget, of which encompasses showroom sales as well.

Keep in mind I'm specifically talking about bricks and mortar retailers coming online - they go about it lazily. GH isn't going to revolutionize anything here, will just be another overpriced online retailer.
 

snoopy

Top Contributor
Take online grocery shopping for example - whilst it is taking off now, it still needs a major overhaul. Retailers think that the consumer should pay for the privilege of shopping online, so prices are more expensive than in store.

With something like that it is going to be a very difficult model to get working well because it is a whole lot of low priced and often bulky items, plus the need for refrigerated delivery. Personally I doubt online grocery shopping will ever be mainstream, it is something mostly suited to special situations like the old, disabled, businesses ordering certain items in bulk etc.
 

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