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Beauty websites finding new ways to work for New Zealand consumers are offering increased levels of assurance and service.
Personally, I'm a big fan of bricks and mortar retailing - use it or lose it - but there's no doubt the convenience and selection offered by shopping online is eating into over-the-counter sales. Cost is obviously a consideration also; with prices in New Zealand considerably higher than overseas for many products it is no wonder shoppers go searching. But behind the lure of a bargain they might not always like what they get, with counterfeits plaguing the international marketplace.
Although prices on some prestige brands have been held or even lowered here in the past few years, travellers, both physical and cyber, are often shocked by the high mark-ups they find. A prestige brand doubling its home market price for sales in New Zealand is fairly standard and partly explained by the tyranny of distance and economies of scale. But when the current high exchange rate mark-ups are three times what a regularly priced item might cost from an American department store, it is no wonder consumers shop around online and check out parallel importing deals. Official distributors and licensed retailers hate being undercut by legal parallel imports. Though this is partly patch protection, there are also issues of consumer advice and assurance in both parallel importing and online shopping through unofficial channels. Several high-profile legal cases are challenging some of these arrangements.
Two months ago Target stores in Australia were forced to withdraw parallel imported M.A.C makeup after M.A.C claimed its tests showed the items selling at discount prices were counterfeit. Legal action has been initiated and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is believed to be investigating.
