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Written by Edward Mandla
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Tuesday, 07 February 2006 |
It's impossible to miss the endless web advice that "content is king".
Years
ago, any company that had photocopied brochures or a hopelessly
out-of-date product book was perceived as disorganised and not going
anywhere. Nowadays, any incomplete or missing products on a website
loses business in a heartbeat.
Senior executives need to demand processes to ensure the content is up to date.
Nothing
beats being a consumer to evaluate a company's website. As I had to
prepare recommendations for the boss on a new plasma TV, I wanted to
research it first and was determined to go to only one store to buy. My
journey discovered great variance in web attitudes and raised questions
as to what is going on in some of our largest retailers.
Informal research among friends led me to search for Fujitsu, Pioneer and Hitachi.
Fujitsu's
site had good product details but no price. Clicking on Download
Brochure or User Manual ended in a "not found on this server" message.
And when I tried to find where I could buy one, I was disappointed with
a 1300 phone number. It takes me two days to muster the courage to dial
a call centre.
I thought Bing Lee, a big Sydney chain, would
have Fujitsu, so I jumped on its website. I couldn't see Fujitsu, so I
moved on. I later discovered it sells Fujitsu when a staff member told
me the website "is not working very well".
Pioneer is a solid
site. It has all the details, price, brochures and manuals that
actually download and a list of places I could buy from. I wanted a
55-inch, and Pioneer appeared to only have 50-inch or 61-inch.
David
Jones was the first Pioneer dealer mentioned, but its site doesn't let
you know what it sells - DJs abandoned its web strategy after
management perceived no return on investment.
Although the
nearest store is just a few hundred metres from my place, I decided to
call ahead. After 15 minutes on hold, I hung up, bewildered. I pondered
dropping in but couldn't even find trading hours on the website. A
quick glance at the Myer site highlights there is no local online
competition in this segment.
The Hitachi site worked well and the price of $8299 caught my eye, given the Pioneer 50-inch was $7999 and its 61-inch $17,999.
I
also noticed discontinued products that I stored in the back of my
mind. Only a 1800 number was listed, which made me grit my teeth.
Harvey
Norman wasn't any better - it doesn't even have a website. On calling
the local store, a salesperson told me: "Mate, we don't believe in
websites. Come on down. I'll look after you."
The rest of the
day was spent looking at websites with missing or outdated products,
and prices thousands more than current retail prices. The most common
response from sales people in larger companies could be summed up:
"Those IT people, mate, they're idiots." In smaller companies I got
sagas of being ripped off by web designers and not knowing how to
update their own sites.
My research led me to conclude Hitachi
was best for me. I remembered that Bing Lee had a web price less than
the Hitachi website and I negotiated an even better price.
In
the future, retail research and buying will increasingly drift to the
web. New competitors will have a strong web strategy, be located in
low-cost areas and ship directly from overseas.
Each day, local
customers are discovering global options. Our retailers need to invite
the technology head into the boardroom to address their webflop and
turn the web to their advantage.
Choice magazine and online
subscribers get free access to Choice Shopper, the Australian
Consumers' Association's $14.95 a quarter, personal buying service that
invites dealers to bid for a sale on a specific item, which often
delivers prices far lower than the prevailing street price. The
website, at http://www.choice.com.au has several comparative reports on
plasma screens.
First published in the Age/Sydney Morning Herald on 7 February, 2006
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