I recently asked Gerry Harvey to “phone me” because I had some free advice for him about his campaign against GST free online purchases.
Now I have some more free advice from him sourced from Minyanville, who provided the handy info-graphic at the end of this post.
The graphic compares Amazon and WalMart – two gorillas in the international retail world.
A few things struck me.
- WalMart is far larger than Amazon
- Amazon is predicted to be larger than WalMart in 2024, but to be much smaller until the 2020s
- WalMart is hitting back by going online
- WalMart is becoming an international bricks and mortar retailer, while Amazon is already an international online retailer
As you can’t take projections 10 or 15 years out too seriously, what this suggests is that WalMart isn’t calling out for teacher to come and see off the intruder, it’s getting out there and looking to match it online and leverage its offline business model in markets where neither have a footprint.
Time some Australian retailers learned this lesson too.
Via: Online MBA
Money’s on Amazon
Comment by Evelynne — June 23, 2011 @ 4:02 am
Distribution costs are the biggest threat to retailers. This includes transport and modal changes but also excessive profits.
Australia post is the best thing against Australian retailers. They add more than GST cost differentials.
Comment by Dicko — June 23, 2011 @ 1:36 pm
Excellent, the comparison shows how deep the paranoia is about ebusiness. It would be inspiring if traditional retail business engaged realistically with the issues rather than crying wolf or asking for over regulation of emerging competitors. If you look carefully you can see your future business model.
Comment by Trevor — June 27, 2011 @ 3:10 am
I heard Gerry Harvey today say,”All we want is a level playing field.”Couldn’t all the manufacturers who either went broke or moved off shore have argued the same during the period economic rationalism? So the retail sector is a special case unlike the manufacturing sector?
Rather than fighting trend,perhaps Gerry could add some competition and integrity to internet retailing.People will always pay a bit more for good service and reputation.
Comment by Ross — July 2, 2011 @ 11:19 am
I thought that Harvey Norman did well out of the GFC bonus schemes. Plenty of TV sales etc were reported. How level was that for other businesses. Say manufacturing?
Comment by Dicko — July 3, 2011 @ 7:35 am