The war between pure online retailers such as Kogan Technologies and Catch of the Day versus the Harvey Normans of the world has taken another turn after Kogan stated that one third of JB Hifi's turnover comes from the sale of Apple products. JB Hifi's CEO has since rejected the claim.
Kogan, never shying away from a press opportunity has drawn up a legal contract betting JB Hifi $1,000,000 that by March 14, 2014 JB will no longer be able to sell Apple products.
The details of the contract are conveniently available on Kogan's website for public viewing.
Traditional retailers woke up to the fact years ago that moving to an online model was essential to staying alive and keeping ahead of the game. The new kids on the block with no physical stores, manufacturing offshore under their own brand and shipping straight from their warehouse to the consumer has really started to take serious bites out of the Harveys, Bing Lees and other iconic Australian retailers. We may not see these guys heading the way of Borders just yet but from a purely economics point of view it's clearly going to be a tough fight to win.
Netstarter works with a number of retail brands on their digital strategy. A few years ago it took some convincing from our end that investing in their ecommerce website and marketing was as important, if not more so than in their stores. Today, with several of our customers enjoying seven figure turnover through their websites we have proved our case.