Australian businesses owners are turning a hopeful eye toward the falling Australian dollar.
The Australian currency has dropped by 15% against the US dollar since April and looks like it will continue to fall. This has Australian businesses hopeful that Australians will start spending their Australian dollars in Australia, whether at bricks and mortar shops in the country, or at Australian websites.
When the Australian dollar was at parity with the American dollar earlier this year, it meant that buying online at offshore websites was a lot cheaper for Australians, as the prices from overseas were typically much lower than in Australia. But now that the dollar has fallen, it should, in theory, close the price gap between Australian retailers and websites from overseas.
However, shopping online at foreign websites has to do with more than just price alone, analysts have noted.
Commonwealth Bank of Australia retail analyst Andrew McLennan said shoppers also like to have more options.
”There is no doubt that one of the key factors that gets consumers spending online internationally is the relative pricing, but it’s also the great range available, which is most often far broader internationally than is available in Australia,” McLennan said.
”There are brands you just can’t get in Australia, there are ranges you simply can’t get in Australia.”
In addition to that, Australians can often end up receiving purchases from overseas faster than they can when they buy them right in their own back yard.
”A lot of these overseas online players have far better developed online capabilities,” McLennan said. ”So you end up getting products that you purchased overseas quicker than you can get it from domestic online retailers.”
And the last rotten cherry on top for Australian businesses is that according to recent research from Ernst & Young, many Australians simply don’t care where they make their purchases from, saying it doesn’t matter to them where a website is based, as long as they get their money’s worth.
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