jovita's bridal boutique newsletter - summer 2012 edition
DESCRIPTION
Features an in-depth look at how online stores are fostering an anti-competitive practice known as 'limit pricing' in the retail industry and how this impacts Australian wedding industry sales.TRANSCRIPT
BRIDAL NEWSLETTERJO
VIT
A’S
Follow us on:
Kate Wilson joins JBB’s Blogger team
We are pleased to announce a new partnership with blogger, Kate Wilson, who currently runs the Weddingclan.com online community.
Kate has now joined our team as a the guest contributor to our blog.
Her first post on the ‘Top 5 Honeymoon Destinations’ for newlyweds has now been published and can be viewed online at jovitasbridal.com.au.
The City Coast & Country Wedding Expo 2011, see right.
New stock coming soon to our online store, pg 2.
That was then, this is now: The new Jovita’s Bridal website, pg 2.
Feature Story, pg 3.Online stores and the retail industry.
Our Weddings, pg 7.Dean & EleniRoz & Kris
This issue
This year’s City, Coast & Country Expo by Macarthur Weddings was a great success.
Hundreds came out to see us at the scenic Macarthur Grange Country Club, proving once again why the City, Coast & Country wedding expo is still reknowned as the best spring bridal fair in Sydney’s South and South West.
Thanks again to everyone who stopped by to say hi and we hope to see you all again at the next one!
The City, Coast & Country Wedding Expo 2011
See more expo pics on Facebook
Summer 2011-2012 w www.jovitasbridal.com
Summer 2011-2012 w www.jovitasbridal.com w Page 2
JOVITA’S BRIDAL BOUTIQUE
JOVITA’S BRIDAL NEWSLETTERSummer 2011-2012, First edition.
Editor Maria [email protected]
Publisher Jovita’s Bridal BoutiqueShop 3, 16 Minto Road,Minto, New South Wales, AUSTRALIA 2566.P: (02) 9603 3133E: [email protected]: www.jovitasbridal.com
We are currently adding all Mori Lee Bridal and Bridesmaids stock from the 2011 & 2012 collections to our online store.
The following collections have already been added:
• Mori Lee Bridal 2009.• Mori Lee Bridal 2010.• VM 2009-2011.• Angelina Faccenda
Bridesmaids 2009-2011.
• ExecuKids 2010.
New stock on the way
Our website from 2008 was given a makeover and is now looking fantastic as an online store and blog.
We have slowly but surely been adding more and more stock and we’ve already made great progress on price reductions, shipping deals and improvements to the overall look and feel of the website since it was launched in August.
Soon we will be reducing international shipping costs by removing some of the limitations
with the Australia Post shipping calculator and we are also working very hard to bring our wedding package deals to our online customers so that they can enjoy the same great deals we offer in store.
Last month we also introduced LayBy orders through Paypal and via Direct Deposit, which has proven to be a very popular option with brides to be.
As well as adding our full range online, we also have a lot of plans in motion at the moment. This includes providing customers with easier access to our the latest stock online, greater visibility in Google and all other search engine results and more informative blog posts for all of our readers and customers who subscribe to our newsletter. Stay tuned for all the latest updates coming in 2012.
The new Jovita’s Bridal Boutique store online
ABOVE: The old Jovita’s Bridal Boutique v.1.1 website from 2008.
Summer 2011-2012 w www.jovitasbridal.com w Page 3
JOVITA’S BRIDAL BOUTIQUE
Online stores and the retail industryUnfair competition and how bridal industry suppliers are fighting back.
Online stores are often blamed for retail sales downturns in the bridal industry when the responsibility actually lies with suppliers.
M ore Australian couples are getting married now than ever before. Even
in the midst of the global financial crisis, the number of weddings in Australia not only continued to rise, but broke all records in 2009. Recent figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics show that the number of Australians tying the knot has steadily increased every year over the past decade, with the
highest number of marriages ever registered in a single year actually occurring during the recession.
Couples have also begun spending unprecedented amounts on their weddings. The cost of an average Australian wedding has now become equal to an average annual salary.
The latest survey from a leading Australian wedding magazine, Bride to Be, has revealed that the total cost of the average
Australian wedding is currently sitting at $48,296.
"In the past decade, the total cost of a wedding in Australia has increased by 73 per cent. That’s three times the rate of inflation,” Bride to Be editor, Sarah Gawthorne said.
The Australian bridal industry is thriving on revenues of up to $4.02 billion each year according to the latest figures from market research firm, IBISWorld. Yet Australian
PHOTO: PIERRE AMELYNCK
Summer 2011-2012 w www.jovitasbridal.com w Page 4
JOVITA’S BRIDAL BOUTIQUE
bridal retailers are not reaping the benefits of this boom.
The latest Government enquiry into the financial health of the Australian retail industry has reported dismal results for bridal retail sales, which “has generally trended down over the past two decades”.
The Productivity Commission’s enquiry was launched late last year following criticism from major
retailers including Harvey Norman and Myer on Government tax breaks for online stores which sell products for under $1000.
While the Commission enquiry found that online stores were not to blame for the retail sales downturn, it has acknowledged that differences in foreign currency and supplier pricing also play a part in shaping the customer’s decision to buy online. “Over the past decade, the large increase in the global supply
of inexpensive manufactured products from China has reinforced the downward pressure on the price of manufactured goods,” the Commision enquiry has revealed.
“The strong appreciation of the Australian dollar due to the strong growth in commodity prices has also placed downward pressure on the prices of imported goods,” the Productivity Commission said.
This spells bad news in an industry dominated by small businesses, as bridal suppliers around the world are reliant on retailers to service their local wedding market.
According to a recent IbisWorld report on the economic state of the wedding industry, the wedding attire sector alone “accounts for 12.4% of total spending, coming in at $5.85 billion”.
Wedding attire is one of the most important and premium choices
in clothing a person can make within their lifetime. Suppliers rely on local retailers to present samples of their stock and provide unique, specialist advice to customers, all of which requires face to face contact.
Owner of Jovita’s Bridal Boutique (JBB), Jovita Tan, says that brides-to-be visit bridal retailers for expert advice that they would not otherwise get by shopping online.
“They visit the store to view real colour swatches, fabric samples and see the gowns’ true quality and detailing,” Jovita said.
“That’s all done while they’re having their measurements taken and talking to us about their wedding plans and ideas as well.”
“Each consultation involves hours of work and it can take all day depending on how many people are in the bridal party,” the JBB owner said.
Summer 2011-2012 w www.jovitasbridal.com w Page 5
JOVITA’S BRIDAL BOUTIQUE
“Each person needs to be booked in for fittings and we work with each individual to determine their body shape, what sort of styles would best suit their wedding theme and what sort of alterations need to be done.
“You can easily buy a gown by shopping online, but it’s impossible to cater specifically to an individual’s needs without seeing them in person,” Jovita said.
All across Australia however, bridal stores are merely being used as fitting rooms by brides who visit their local retailers for lengthy fittings and consultations, only to buy their preferred gown at a cheaper price from an overseas store online.
“Official retailers from overseas know that in the end, it’s the service that means everything in this business,” Jovita said.
“A wedding will always be one of the biggest days of your life. All of your needs won’t get taken care of simply by shopping online. At the end of the day, there will need to be some sort of face to face contact involved so that the bridal gown or dresses and formal wear actually fit properly or are at least in the right colours,” the JBB owner said.
The largely unregulated retail trading happening online is actually fostering an anti-competitive practice known as ‘limit pricing’, which is defined as “the act of setting a selling price just below the level at which other sellers
would find it profitable to enter a market”, by Deardorffs’ Glossary of International Economics.
By browsing through any of the online bridal stores on the web, it’s easy to see the major differences in wedding attire prices for each country. It also becomes clear that many of the online stores are selling below the cost price of the exact same wedding attire that is available in Australia.
Even if each of the online stores are official retailers of the exact same bridal gowns and formal wear collections, the final retail price set on these products will always be largely dependant on the original
costs set by suppliers and their official representatives.
In the wedding attire sector, the cost of stock is varied for every region of the world and there is no uniformity in the cost prices set by each supplier.
Bridal and formal wear retailers are charged different prices based on many factors including their geographic location, their local economic conditions and the cost of maintaining the supplier’s presence in that country.
This creates an unfair advantage for many online stores who trade in a global retail marketplace online.
Retailers from overseas are now able to encroach upon wedding
markets in other regions to compete with retailers who are unable to charge a similar price for the exact same wedding attire, let alone make enough to cover their own expenses.
The largely unregulated retail trading happening online is actually fostering an anti-competitive practice known as ‘limit pricing’. This is “the act of setting a selling price just below the level at which other sellers would find it profitable to enter a market”.
ABOVE: A popular U.S. website selling Mori Lee Bridal gowns below the Australian cost price.
Summer 2011-2012 w www.jovitasbridal.com w Page 6
JOVITA’S BRIDAL BOUTIQUE
The Productivity Commission has confirmed in their draft report that "addressing such regional price discrimination is one of the main challenges for local retailers".
"If retailers fail to purchase the goods that they resell at competitive prices, more business exits and loss of employment will occur. The threat of parallel imports may help motivate international suppliers to change their regional pricing policies.
It would seem likely that many international suppliers will want to retain local agents and retailers to support and service their products in the Australian market.
From a policy standpoint, the Government should ensure that any anti-competitive behaviour which inhibits retailers from purchasing competitively is addressed.
A leading bridal designer and supplier, Mori Lee, addressed this issue in September by changing their distribution policies, following
in the footsteps of other big name wedding industry suppliers including Vera Wang, Maggie Sottero and Henry Roth.
The New York based supplier updated their policy for authorized retailers in the United States, who currently enjoy much lower cost prices than their overseas counterparts.
"Retailers within the United States are prohibited from accepting orders that originate outside the United States, including via telephone, internet, fax or any other means," Mori Lee's updated policy states.
"Retailers are likewise prohibited from shipping Mori Lee products outside of the United States. Mori Lee reserves the right to terminate a retailer's 'authorized retailer' status and otherwise discontinue doing business with any retailer who violates this restriction."
Another leading bridal supplier, Alfred Angelo, has also followed
suit just prior to the release of their Spring 2011 Collection, by prohibiting online retailers within the US to accept any orders originating outside America.
Despite also launching a new online bridal store, the owner of Jovita’s Bridal Boutique welcomes the new distribution policies being introduced by suppliers.
“These standards will help the industry will maintain its equilibrium,” Jovita said.
“With a standard rate of pricing in place for each region, competition will be much more fair and it will also be easier to determine whether a gown or suit being sold online is the real deal or if it’s counterfeit,” the JBB owner said.
“The major lesson here is that this sort of anti-competitive behaviour is not just affecting the bridal and wedding industry, it affects the retail industry as a whole. Every exchange has rules, so why should global retail trade be any different.”
Summer 2011-2012 w www.jovitasbridal.com w Page 7
JOVITA’S BRIDAL BOUTIQUE
Dean & Eleni“Thank you so much for the dress, they look really good on the girls.
You did just a great job Jovita, thank you again,” Eleni, August 2011.
OUR WEDDINGSRoz & Kris“Thank you for all your help with the dresses for my upcoming wedding Jovita!
I’m so happy with them!,” Roz, September 2011.
JOVITA’S BRIDALwww.jovitasbridal.com
[ Shop 3, 16 Minto Road, Minto, NSW AUSTRALIA 2566. | P: (02) 9603 3133 | E: [email protected] ]