Apparel Online Bangladesh Magazine September Issue 2018 | Page 63

WORLD WRAP
brand retailers – that which will
refocus on the strongest and most
profitable parts of businesses.”
No doubt, the year gone by was a
determining year for Australian retail,
as two major retail movements heated
up activities in the market. On one
hand, French-owned retailer Décathlon
opened its first bricks-and-mortar
store in Australia in 2017, and on the
other, the long-anticipated arrival of
Amazon was realised. The arrival of
Amazon is expected to shake up the
market and give it new directions. “As
Amazon builds out its infrastructure
and services in Australia in 2018, we
can expect its presence and influence
on the market to grow significantly,
particularly in the second half of the
year and in the lead up to Christmas.
We’ll have to wait and see the ultimate
impact of Amazon’s onshore business
in Australia, but it’s important to
remember that this also creates
opportunities for Australian retailers,”
opines White.
Internet retailing has become an
increasingly important channel for
apparel and footwear retailers. In 2017,
the channel continued to increase its
value share in apparel and footwear,
driven by Australia’s high mobile
penetration and the growing number of
consumers opting to shop and browse
for products online. With e-retailing
coming of age, Alibaba too opened its
Australian headquarters in Melbourne,
JD.com is expected to follow shortly,
and Vipshop Holdings (VIP.com) opened
its new distribution centre in Sydney.
In fact online retail spending in
Australia is forecast to hit a double-
digit proportion of total retail spending
in 2018, currently sitting around
seven per cent. The push has been
accentuated with a wide range of
retailers reporting strong online
growth over Christmas 2017; moving
forward in 2018, the focus will be
on both pure online platforms and
omnichannel retailers. In this quest,
speed is emerging to be at the forefront
of the fight. More so as Australia is a
geographically challenging market for
retailers and logistics providers.
The frontrunner in the race for speed
is without doubt Amazon which is
expected to launch its Prime and
Fulfilment by Amazon programs
locally in 2018, that will necessitate
a significant investment in logistics
capabilities, bringing in a new level of
speed for thousands of its partners.
Speed is also shaping up to be a focus
for stores, as the likes of Woolworths
and Super Retail Group invest in faster
click-and-collect models and predictive
data analytics software to better
understand customer demand.
To keep up the retail business in
the country, new laws are being
implemented. In the past financial
year, Australian customers spent
about US $ 40 million to purchase
low-value items (less than US $ 1,000)
online, from offshore destinations.
Since customers did not pay any GST
on low-value items, nor any other
taxes, duties or charges to bring the
product into the country, it was a
good deal. However, from July 1, 2018,
GST has become applicable on items
under US $ 1,000 also. According to
retail analysts, this will ‘level the
playing field’, as overseas retailers
who are sending goods worth more
than US $ 75,000 a year into Australia
must collect the GST and pay it to
the Australian Government, which
could in fact mean more business for
local retailers.
Puma collaborates
with Tinycottons
to launch fun fruity
kidswear collection
German sportswear giant Puma and Spanish kidswear retailer
Tinycottons have joined hands to launch an exciting, food-theme
range for children along with footwear and clothing for babies,
toddlers and grade schoolers.
Sporty, fun-loving, and colourful are the terms that accurately
explain the latest collaboration between Puma and Tinycottons.
For this latest joint effort, the two brands have focused on food-
themed patterns like cherries, crisps, fish-and-chips and edible-
looking colours.
The latest collection will be available across the world on both
of the brand’s online marketplace: www.puma.com and www.
tinycottons.com as well as in