Magazines Archives - 2008 November

US JCPenney launches Australian online portal
Story 9 - Ecommerce

US department store retailer JCPenney Company Inc has launched its online site in Australia (jcpenney.com.au) via local licensee JCPIC Australia Pty Ltd.

Australians make up the third largest community of online consumers in the world in proportion to the country’s population size, said the company’s operations manager, Sharon Hooker.

“Australians are keen shoppers and we expect them to respond well to the opportunities offered by the JCPenney Australia site, to select high-quality and brand-name merchandise at prices that compare more favourably than with those locally,” said Hooker.

With weekly updates on product line-ups, the site, launched in September this year, promises to give buyers “some very pleasant surprises”. Delivery time for the products is 12-14 days, and many of the items in the Australian website are priced lower than their counterparts in the US, she added.

In light of the US retailer’s venture into the country’s e-commerce market, local retailers need to step up their online presence so as not to lose out on the market’s potential, as they predict “more offshore competitors [are] likely to follow suit”, analysts advised.

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