Shhhh, I’m trying to sail...

 

There are many questions which fashion designers or retailers will answer at length before ending with “don’t quote me on that”. The assumption is someone else will comment without a request for anonymity, and the topic at hand will be presented in a manner that ensures the former is not sailing up a particularly fragrant and lumpy creek.

These talking points (or non-talking as it were) include non-paying buyers, private investors and businesses currently up a particularly fragrant and lumpy creek. As regular readers will know, this silence does not stop us from consulting official sources such as the Australian Securities and Investments Commission for answers. There are also a multitude of legal and financial databases on hand to assist in this capacity.

The aim is not to rock the boat, but alert stakeholders if there is a particularly fragrant and lumpy creek on the horizon. And hey, there’s plenty of great stories where the boat is in fact a cruise liner sailing on to fresh and tranquil waters.

But search high and low, far and wide, and the only official reference to Westfield’s virtual shopping mall is speculative newspaper reports. The shopping giant has managed to avoid any direct reference to its reportedly soon-to-be-launched mall, with questioning from yours truly met with an “at this stage, we’ve made no announcement regarding online retailing”. But it has got the industry talking.

Several retailers, none of which wanted to be identified (here we go again), confirmed they had been approached by Westfield but not yet committed to the venture.

There are several reasons, two of which can be highlighted within the space restrictions of this page.

In addition to rental fees, there is a 10 per cent commission on sales. I imagine this would be easier to swallow if retailers hadn’t already set up their own e-commerce arms, or were in the process of doing so, where they can claim 100 per cent of the sale price.

Another area which has pens trembling over the dotted line is fulfilment terms. Each brand is reportedly responsible for the fulfilment of their own order: if a customer has ordered from retailer A, retailer B and retailer C then all three must ship these goods from their respective warehouses/stores/distribution centres. If each charges $10 for shipping, then a real problem arises at checkout.

“Who’s going to pay $30 for domestic shipping?” one retailer questions. “The implication is we’ll be played off one another to offer free or discounted shipping rates.”

There are also strict fulfilment and listing terms. When will the mall launch? In July, newspapers reported the centre was in the “final stages” of signing on tenants. It’s October.