Publisher Len Rust
Tools and technology are changing the balance of power in retailing, shifting the power to consumers. 2010 saw a dramatic increase in online shopping and over the last few months consumer demand for retail information and service via the internet has grown exponentially. Countless television, radio and research reports have all detailed the growing shift towards online research and buying.
Lasoo.com.au Australia’s leading pre-shop website (a division of Salmat) allows consumers to search or browse the latest advertised products from most of Australia’s leading retailers to help them find what to buy and from where. The site attracted 2.9 million visits in December (an increase of one million on the previous year) and this was perceived to be a weaker retail sales period.
Further to this Lasoo.com.au experienced a 1000 percent increase in those using mobile devices to research their purchase interests—a trend that the retailers can no longer afford to ignore. Lasoo is similar to the giant shopping centre stocked with load of specials. For the most part you can’t purchase on Lasoo, unless there is a “buy now” link displayed next to the offer you’re interested in, this will take you to the retailer’s site to complete the purchase or to visit your nearest store to buy it.
Paul Marshall, Executive General Manager of Lasoo highlighted that “Australian consumers buying directly from offshore retailers will continue to be a reality in 2011”. The strong Australian dollar, greater range of products and brands, customer service, price and most importantly the overall online shopping experience are all factors which have led to 4 percent (according to a study from PayPal) of online sales going offshore. The GST saving would have only a small influence over this, if any at all. Many of these factors can be addressed by local retailers winning back some of the estimated $34 billion that will be spent by Australians online in 2012, (according to Forrester Research); a prize worth fighting for!
Lasoo expects that the demand for retail information from any place, at anytime will continue to grow in 2011 and that mobile devices will play an increasingly important role in pre-shop research. By late 2010, Lasoo was already seeing local adoption of practices such as the use of mobile devices as barcode readers to conduct product research and price comparisons, check product specifications and check product reviews and ratings. Fifteen million catalogue pages were viewed on consumer mobile devices using Lasoo’s mobile application during the Christmas season.
Lasoo is part of a wider range of digital services from Salmat designed for all retailers to harness the advertising power of the internet. This includes Dynamic Catalogue a fully managed and hosted catalogue solution for retailer websites making it searchable, browseable, fast loading, discoverable and actionable.
—Len Rust, rustoz@bigpond.com
