Issues and Solutions for Online Shopping in Australia

The report discusses the issues related to online shopping in Australia due to cultural factors and proposes marketing solutions to address them. It also provides industry examples to validate the proposed solutions.

Running head: CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR
Consumer Behaviour
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1CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR
Executive Summary
The primary purpose of this report is to elucidate on the issues pertaining to online shopping
in Australia that arise on account of the cultural factors within Australia. The report also talks
about marketing related solution that can help in addressing the issues. The report also states
about industry examples that helps in validating the proposed solutions.

2CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR
Table of Contents
Critical analysis of issues related to online shopping and cultural influence............................3
Recommendations......................................................................................................................4
Industry Examples......................................................................................................................5
References..................................................................................................................................7

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Critical analysis of issues related to online shopping and cultural influence
The Australian people believe that they would not get top quality products in the
event of buying things in the online platform. The reviews pertaining to the products are not
always reliable The Australian people faces a lot of fear in relation to online shopping. The
cultural heritage of the Australians makes them believe that they would get negative results
out of online shopping. The people in Australia have the notion that research would not be
able to assure them regarding the quality of a product (Shavitt and Cho 2016, p 149). There
are fraudulent sellers in Australia who involve themselves in misleading the customers so that
they can increase the sales. The Australians have innate fear in relation to the factor of
unprobabilities in life and this makes them go away from the aspect of online shopping. The
e-commerce companies in the present age have grown a lot in the present age and this makes
it difficult for these companies to conduct the quality checks on the products.
The culture of the Australians makes them more comfortable in physically
experiencing a product at the time of their buying. It has been found that the popular products
that are bought on Internet have price interval that makes them buy the product (Vitell et al.
2016, p. 147). It has however been seen that there exist temporal differences in between the
online shoppers that poses risk for the Australians. The Australians get too many product
choices in the event of shopping online that creates issue for the Australians. The Australians
believes to a great extent in that of utilitarian value and they want to evaluate the products
before they buy them. The utilitarian consumer behaviour makes them task-related and they
believe in the practical use of the products.
The issues related to online shopping arise due to the fact that the various retail
business in Australia cannot translate content pertaining to their website that throws open
challenges for the Australians. The various business within Australia cannot adapt to that of

4CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR
local shopping habits of the people in Australia that creates challenges pertaining to online
shopping within Australia. The Australians are not tech-savvy and this creates challenges for
the people living within Australia (De Mooij 2018, p. 138). The use of technologies differ
across that of territories and this gives rise to issues pertaining to online shopping in
Australia. Digital divide in prevalent in Australia and there are around 2.6 million Australians
who do not make use of the internet.
Recommendations
There are marketing solutions that can be implemented that can help in improving the
scenario of online shopping within Australia. The customers of e-commerce should be
provided with the opportunity to test the products that can make the customers feel confident
when they are ordering the products online. Information in relation to various parameters of a
product should be provided online that can play an important role in making the customers
feel comfortable. There should be trust symbols in relation to the products and the
certification from the famous industry can make the consumers believe in the authenticity of
the products that are delivered via the online mode (Ng 2016, p. 89). The e-commerce firms
should provide the answer to the questions within that of real time that can help in easing the
anxiety of the customer.
The online retailers of Australia can make use of ‘touch and feel’ comfort that can
help the customers in physically experiencing the product when they are buying the products
in the online mode. They can come up with a ‘Try & Buy’ concept where the customers can
get the products delivered at their home where they can try out the products. A style-audio
can also be created by the online retailers that can play a role in the creation of making the
shopping experience more interactive (Laukkanen 2016, p. 2433). The style-audio can help
the customers in clicking the pictures by making use of web-camera where they can select
product and check out how it looks on other people. There are kiosks that have been set up

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within the malls along with the high-footfall site that helps in giving credibility to the
different on-line retailers. The e-commerce travelling companies have stores that helps it in
selling the tickets along with the holidays. They also arrange exhibition that plays an
important role in exhibiting the highlights of their company.
The large organisations can play an important role that can help in bridging the aspect
of digital divide within Australia. The large corporates can make use of sphere of the
influence for serving the purpose of mutual business benefit. There are various programs that
can be run by the e-commerce companies that can help in removing the issues related to
online marketing in Australia (Wang and Foosiri 2018, p. 20). The programs can be run along
with that of United Nations e-trade that can help organisation in getting benefits from that of
top down along with the bottom up approach. The e-commerce companies of Australia can
help people in making aware about technology by taking recourse to programs that can help
in providing knowledge to the people of Australia who are ignorant regarding the various
facets of technology (Laudon and Traver 2016, p. 20).
Industry Examples
There are various e-commerce websites in Australia that gives opportunity to the
customers to test the products when they are bought with the help of the online medium.
There are e-commerce sites like Kogan and JB Hi-Fi that provides opportunity to consumers
of carrying out testing of the products when they are bought through the platform of e-
commerce. There are reviews that are provided in the websites that helps the consumers in
getting detailed information about the products. Detailed information is provided in the e-
commerce sites of Australia regarding the specifications of the products that plays an
important role in increasing the popularity of the products.

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There are various online retailers called Hard To Find along with Kogan.com that are
instrumental in simulating the aspect of touch along with feel that helps in providing
convenience for the customers (Turban et al. 2017, p. 65). This helps them in differentiating
itself from that of other online retailers that are the competitors of these companies. The
aspect of virtual trail room has played an important role in increasing the conversion rate by
around 25 % in relation to these products.
The retail companies in Australia are making use of the facility of “one-click
purchase” that acts to the benefit of those people who are not so conversant with technology.
The retail companies in Australia like The Iconic, Kogan along with Appliances Online have
made use of Wi-Fi connected IOT device that helps in easily ordering the products. The
consumers can link specific repurchase to that of a device that can helps in unburdening
weight pertaining to purchase process when the consumers are in their home. This plays an
important role in bridging the gulf that resides in between the people who are aware and
unaware regarding vital aspects in relation to technology. There are devices in the e-
commerce websites that helps in tracking that of item usage. The consumers can then place
the order in the event of the supplies reaching low point and they can use autonomous choice
that helps in enriching the consumer experience.

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References
De Mooij, M., 2018. Global marketing and advertising: Understanding cultural paradoxes.
SAGE Publications Limited.
Laudon, K.C. and Traver, C.G., 2016. E-commerce: business, technology, society.
Laukkanen, T., 2016. Consumer adoption versus rejection decisions in seemingly similar
service innovations: The case of the Internet and mobile banking. Journal of Business
Research, 69(7), pp.2432-2439.
Ng, M., 2016. Factors influencing the consumer adoption of Facebook: A two-country study
of youth markets. Computers in Human Behavior, 54, pp.491-500.
Shavitt, S. and Cho, H., 2016. Culture and consumer behavior: the role of horizontal and
vertical cultural factors. Current opinion in psychology, 8, pp.149-154.
Turban, E., Outland, J., King, D., Lee, J.K., Liang, T.P. and Turban, D.C., 2017. Electronic
commerce 2018: a managerial and social networks perspective. Springer.
Vitell, S.J., King, R.A., Howie, K., Toti, J.F., Albert, L., Hidalgo, E.R. and Yacout, O., 2016.
Spirituality, moral identity, and consumer ethics: A multi-cultural study. Journal of business
ethics, 139(1), pp.147-160.
Wang, J. and Foosiri, P., 2018. Factors related to consumer behavior on luxury goods
purchasing in China. UTCC International Journal of Business and Economics, 10(1), pp.19-
36.