More Australian businesses are increasing their online budgets to keep their existing customers as well as attracting new ones, new research has found.
Market research, conducted by the AIMIA (Australian Interactive Media Industry Association) Retail Industry Group, found that in 2011, 83 percent of retailers plan to increase online budgets as a percent of their overall marketing budget.
These statistics indicate a clear shift away from media such as press and traditional direct mail, according to Chairman of AIMIA Retail Industry Group Robert Wong.
“It’s an emerging fact that Australian’s are becoming conditioned to believing “if you want the best deal” you really need to go online – at least to look for the best deal – if not buy it online. There is no question that traditional media such as press still reaches a lot of people on a daily basis, but there are simply more eyeballs to be found online,” Mr Wong said.
As well as attracting new customers, retail stores will need to have an online presence in order to keep up with the wants and needs of their existing customers, adds Mr Wong.
“Most retailers in Australia will need to have a strong online advertising presence to ensure their messages about offers and deals are put up against the emerging clearance houses and discount coupon businesses to maintain market share. If traditional store retailers don’t have their best offers online consumers will simply forget to consider them. The amount of people browsing online cannot be ignored by retail marketing managers and that is what we are seeing in the research,” Mr Wong said.
“It will be interesting to see over the next few years if some of our traditional retail business who don’t become active in the online space begin to fade and become less relevant to the Australian consumer.”
