Australia’s physical isolation has insulated Australian
retailers for many years. We have pretty much had a captive market with
importers and retailers calling the shots. Why not charge a little more for
goods? Why bother too much with innovation? Australia’s climate and therefore
its fashion trends don’t really line up with the rest of the world so there is
no real incentive to keep up.
Well, all that has changed. Australian consumers have access
to the latest and greatest. Global parcel deliveries mean isolation is less of
a factor. International retailers have moved to short run collections and know
how to excite their customers with constant change. It is called competition,
and has been around since Eve beat Adam to the apple.There are signs that new innovative retailers can prosper. Smaller retailers and manufacturers have the flexibility to tune into customer demand and invariably are dealing face to face with the customer. That advantage certainly applies at places like QVM and we should be making the most of it.
