via smh.com.au
An industry-wide campaign is needed to encourage Australians to shop again by making retail a fun and exciting experience, according to a Macquarie University consumer behaviour specialist.
Dr Steven D’Alessandro, a Macquarie University senior lecturer, said a mix of loud music in stores, disinterested sales staff and sizing that did not reflect the broad range of consumers was contributing heavily to recent poor retail results.
While he acknowledged the onset of the global financial crisis and heavily leveraged consumers were also contributing factors, he stressed Australia was still a wealthy country with a population that had funds available to spend.
He suggested the loss of physical bricks-and-mortar sales to the online channel was not as great as people might think with the ability to try on clothing before purchasing still sought after.
He urged retailers revisit their business models and come up with new ideas to make shopping a fun experience.
“If you look at fashion stores in Australia, they are very similar to each other,” he said.
D’Alessandro suggested too much emphasis was placed on meeting the needs of Generation Y who did not have anywhere near the spending power compared to Baby Boomers.
“The assets of Baby Boomers are around $1 trillion making them a key market,” he said.
And yet, these consumers were being forced to go to certain stores to get the size clothing they required.
“We need an industry-wide campaign to get people back into the shops,” he said.
“I don’t think people want to buy online; women are the largest market for fashion and they want to try clothes on.
“Retailers need to have a good look at who their market is and what size they need to sell in that market, to go back to basics.”
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For more on the topic, you can also head to Trendwatching.com for their article titled Retail Renaissance which challenges the online phenomenon and explains “Why consumers will enjoy shopping for your products and services in the `real world’ more than ever.”
This is a must read for all boutique and online retailers in devising a system that marries both the traditional bricks and mortar shopping we all know and love, with the future of online shopping we are all using now and will continue to.