For a start, delivery fees are often overlooked. The express delivery fee from worldrugbyshop.com to New Zealand, for example, is a whopping US$77.93.
And as it happened, the public outcry coincided with the New Zealand dollar peaking against the greenback. It is ridiculous, retailers insist, to expect them to adjust their prices on a daily or weekly basis to take into account exchange rate fluctuations.
That said, Rebel Sport boss Rod Duke wasn't being entirely disingenuous by highlighting Adidas' discriminatory pricing. He was right to note the wholesale price was still higher here.
The issue is hardly a new one - we have been bleating for years about the price of New Zealand lamb in British supermarkets, and the price of milk almost anywhere. But more than a decade after globalisation became the latest buzz-word, the international playing field may be finally levelling out.
Thanks to the internet, many consumers are waking up to the power they wield in a post-GFC world, putting suppliers who practise discriminatory pricing under increasing risk of being hit by "retail rage".
"Don't you dare print this, but Adidas did us all a huge favour," one online retailer told The Business. "Online shopping needed a bit of a kick in the butt, and Adidas managed to get it right over the goalposts."
* Research company Nielsen has estimated that in 2001, just 10 per cent of New Zealanders over the age of 18 shopped online. Today the figure is believed to be around 46 per cent.
So far the most popular purchase is airline tickets - a trend that has already turfed hundreds of travel agents out of a job. Many of us are also going online to buy books, magazines, clothing and accessories, as well as entertainment tickets, travel-related services, music, movies, health and beauty products, computer hardware and sports equipment.
Unfortunately, there is no single source of comprehensive data in New Zealand which can pinpoint the exact amount being spent online. However, using its database of 12,000 people it interviews annually, as well as an online survey it carried out in January, Nielsen has estimated the total was something like $2.3 billion over the past year.
That total includes secondhand items, but notable trends include a marked increase in overseas purchases, possibly totalling around $500 million, and a huge surge in buying from daily deal and group-buying websites.
According to Nielsen, two-thirds of online New Zealanders now receive daily email alerts from such sites, and 40 per cent have bought something from them in the past three months. That compares with 37 per cent who bought something from Trade Me over the same period, and only 5 per cent who used two of our most successful "pure play" online retailers, Fishpond and Mighty Ape.
Nielsen spokesman Tony Boyte notes that almost everyone reported using the internet to research products and services. He also believes many Kiwis are overcoming their security fears about making payments online.
"Debit cards have been a big mover of the New Zealand market and have probably had a strong effect in the last year," he says. "It also gets around some of the concerns about transactions. If you've only got a $100 or $200 top-up, that's all you can lose, compared to almost unlimited amounts on credit cards."
Interestingly, notes Boyte, many more New Zealanders than Australians reported that one of the main factors deterring them from shopping online was the fact that they still didn't have any kind of card with which to make purchases. But the main challenge for online retailers is that many people are still uneasy that they can't inspect goods or services before they commit to buying them.
In Britain, which is so far leading the world in online retailing, major chains are already coming up with innovative solutions, such as online videos of products, no-cost returns policies, and dedicated "buy and collect" centres.
British department store House of Fraser, for example, will open two new stores before the end of the year which will solely cater for online customers who want to pick up their orders. The stores will consist of nothing much more than changing rooms and a bank of computer screens, in case customers want to change a size or colour before they commit to a final purchase.
Logistics firms are also adapting to such changes. By next month, online delivery specialist Shutl aims to offer a same-day courier service to half the British population by using its network of thousands of small courier companies to collect online orders directly from high street stores, rather than centralised distribution hubs.
The company's founder, Tom Allason, recently told the Financial Times his aim was to have sufficient coverage to give high-street retailers a "significant competitive edge" over Amazon and other pure-play retailers in time for the Christmas rush.
* Accounting firm Pricewaterhouse-Coopers has estimated online sales already make up around 9 per cent of the retail market in Britain. The US figure is believed to be about 7.5 per cent, significantly ahead of Australia and New Zealand at 5.5 per cent and 5.1 per cent respectively.
PWC's own report on the sector, compiled in association with consultancy Frost & Sullivan, predicts that online shopping in Australia and New Zealand will grow at least twice as fast as the total retail market over the next four years.
It notes the market is rapidly evolving into multiple ways of doing business, including social networks and mobile applications, and it seems to scold Australian retailers - who in many cases are also New Zealand retailers - for not keeping up with international
developments.
"The general lack of an online presence by the large retail chains in Australia over the last decade has been a significant factor for a relatively poor uptake of online shopping in this region to date," it suggests.
PWC also warns that increasing numbers of customers are being lured to overseas websites by much greater variety and much cheaper prices that cannot be solely blamed on an absence of sales taxes. "This is leaving traditional bricks and mortar retailers struggling to compete with international retailers on price, given the major structural issues around higher labour and rent costs."
It predicts the categories that will be hit hardest will include clothing, footwear, gaming, books and magazines, recreational products and cosmetics.
Bookshops, of course, have already been decimated. Locally, Borders and Angus & Robertson have been high profile victims, and Whitcoulls only narrowly survived a difficult period under private equity ownership.
Nielsen's Tony Boyte notes that British retailers are way ahead of companies Downunder in terms of the proportion of their advertising they already allocate to online channels. "I think it's hitting close to 20 per cent there, whereas we're sitting at around 12 per cent here."
It's not as if it's a market that's worth ignoring, he says. Unsurprisingly, research shows those already shopping online are more likely to have a higher education, a professional occupation, and a high household income. As more people join the online throng, the demographics will move more in line with the overall population, but it's still an attractive customer base, he argues.
Boyte also concurs with PWC's conclusion that although consumers would prefer to buy locally, many are happy to shop from overseas websites if they offer cheaper products and more variety.
"We asked people why they shop overseas, and 70 per cent said they couldn't find what they wanted in New Zealand. The second reason was 60 per cent said it was cheaper overseas, even including delivery."
While many local retailers privately admit to being somewhat bewildered by the rapid pace of technological change, Australian retail analyst Mark Wade, from Linwar Securities, is optimistic about the future of the sector.
Wade agrees many Australasian retailers have been slow to move online, but believes the shift is more of an opportunity than a threat for listed companies. He cites Kathmandu, Oroton, JB Hi-fi and SuperRetail (owner of Supercheap Auto and the Fishing Camping Outdoors chain) as among those doing a reasonably good job so far. "I think the guys who embrace it will do well, and the ones who don't run the risk of being left behind."
NZ Retailers Association head John Albertson admits many traditional players are wary. "It varies tremendously, but as a sector overall, no - we're probably not taking it seriously enough," he suggests.
Albertson suspects online shopping will soon reach a tipping point here "where it will probably go mad". The same thing, he notes, happened with online banking.
"I don't think we can smugly sit back and say 95 per cent is still through bricks and mortar, because it depends on the spread of customers," he observes. "I think the other thing that's tended to happen in the past is retailers have said 'We need an online presence' so they've put up a website. But it's very important to look at online as a whole new strategy."
Older retailers, for example, need to get to grips with the rise of social networks, he says, and the increasing trend of consumers being able to post feedback about the products they buy and the service they receive.
"We've become pre-purchase researchers, but we're also going to become post-purchase commentators. And that's what retailers really have to learn to accept, and live with. You can't say: 'We don't want to be on Facebook because we don't want to hear what people say about us'. You've got to be there, responding, and saying: 'This is what we're going to do about it'. It's a whole new ball game."
* It's not just retailers who are struggling to adapt. Around the world, the logistics industry is also transforming to cope with the increase in individual parcels.
Across the Tasman, Australia's Productivity Commission has agreed the A$1000 GST-free threshold for imported goods is not ideal, but has pointed out that Australia Post's "clunky" and costly systems currently prevent the threshold from being significantly lowered.
Just this week, Australia Post responded with several new initiatives, including 24-hour electronic parcel lockers to pick up goods bought online, self-service machines for domestic parcels, and special flat-rate satchels and boxes for eBay purchases. It also announced a new electronic tracking service between the US and Australia, with more international destinations to be added in the future.
On this side of the ditch, NZ Post has already attracted interest from the
Commerce Commission for its Parcel Post tracking service, which has some significant holes in rural areas. However, NZ Post spokesman John Tulloch insists it is constantly reviewing its systems. "There's all sorts of technology and ideas being trialled out there so it's always a case of keeping an eye on what works and what doesn't."
Tulloch notes that parcel volumes from overseas were up 14 per cent in June on the previous year - a jump he believes is probably due to the strong New Zealand dollar. But even the advent of Trade Me has not prevented a plunge in the overall volume of mail over the past decade, from 1 billion pieces each year to just 800 million, he notes.
"We're looking at maintaining and sustaining a viable physical network but we're also very much looking to get into the digital space as well."
On the flip side of international growth in parcels there is a parallel trend, he notes, of growing interest in "hyper-local" trade, including applications such as Foursquare, which enables retailers and service providers to target potential customers in their immediate vicinity. He also notes that hybrid stores are developing.
"Apple stores are really interesting. If you want an Apple product, it's so easy to buy it online. Yet they also have these fantastic stores. They're a brilliant showcase for what they do, so they've obviously thought stores are still useful, and people still want to touch and feel."
Trade Me's head of "marketplace", Craig Jordan, has only recently returned from a huge retail conference in Australia where he picked up numerous tips. But he was particularly interested in the rise of "flash sale" websites such as NZ Sale and BrandsExclusive, which offer discounted deals.
"The overarching thing was just the energy that's encompassing Aussie retail now - not just online pure-plays but retailers suddenly realising one or two consumers are using the internet."
Although the history of online retail in this country is so far littered with spectacular failures, Jordan believes sustainable models are finally emerging. And he hints one development we are likely to see in the near future is retailers using Trade Me as an online mall, much as US retailers already do with eBay and Amazon, and Westfield does in Australia.
"We're in discussions with the majority of New Zealand's top retailers, so over the coming months I suspect you'll see a couple of those appear on Trade Me, which is pretty exciting for both parties."
Jordan notes that some of the niche delivery companies who target small businesses have indicated they are keen to get more ambitious. He also notes that mobile applications for smartphones and tablet computers are also starting to be used here.
So far, Trade Me's iPhone app has been downloaded "well over" 100,000 times, and an Android app is in the pipeline. However, there is not yet a smartphone app for Countdown, for example, as there is for Woolworths customers in Australia.
"People say that the New Zealand ecommerce landscape is pretty immature, but we're doing over $750 million in sales, so it kind of shows that New Zealand consumers are already pretty savvy online ... Kiwis are ready for it and hungry for it, and they're just waiting for some of those retailers to get involved, which is good."
