By Claire Reilly
SYDNEY, NSW: Canon Australia has today launched an official online store that will sell direct to Australian consumers and “complement” the brand's existing distribution channels.
Speaking to Current.com.au, Canon Australia director of Canon consumer imaging, Jason McLean, said that the pricing proposition would be based around selling compact cameras, SLR cameras, printers and digital video products in bundles.
“Our pricing proposition, which is up and visible today, is that the product itself will be at recommended retail price and then we’ll add some value to the consumers with some bundles around that product,” McLean said.
For McLean, the decision to go online was an obvious one for Canon Australia.
“We see the online channel now as an existing channel in the Australian market. We’ve been watching it for a couple of years now and in the last 12 months or so it’s really accelerated. As such, Canon’s position has always been that we need to be where consumers want to buy.”
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“We’re responding to a rapidly changing retail environment by introducing an online experience that complements our existing retail network and gives those consumers who wish to make their purchases online an option to do so locally,” McLean said.
“We are evolving in step with the global marketplace, and we are focused on attracting consumer attention to Canon and the range of options to buy locally.”
“There’s clearly a need to have a presence where all consumers choose to shop, which now includes the online environment. Ultimately we want all people to be able to choose Canon and buy with complete confidence and in a manner that suits them – whether it is from one of our authorised retail partners or directly from us from our online store.”
Today’s website launch was coupled with an announcement that Canon Australia will be spending $15 million in the coming months in order to stimulate local demand. These announcements follow news earlier this month that Canon would be cutting recommended retail prices on more than 95 products.
Speaking about the new initiatives, McLean said it was Canon’s way of responding to consumer desire to integrate more digital products into their daily lives.
“The Australian consumer’s appetite for digital technology continues to grow and grow," McLean said. "They want digital devices in their lifestyle. The reason that we made the price adjustment was that we’re in a globally-competitive market now, so we have to open our eyes outside of the confines of the Australian coastline.
“Price repositioning aside, we will move prices in the market from time to time depending on a number of competitive influences, whether that’s a direct competitor here or a global market. The evolution of the Canon store is just a step in our overall digital strategy, as we’ve made channel changes over the last couple of years we will continue to be where consumers want to buy."
In terms of the $15 million to be spent on stimulating awareness of the Canon brand, McLean said the money would be invested across Canon’s key advertising programs.
“We’ll have a major Christmas program that generally sits across all our brands, we’ve got Eos advertising that is on-air at the moment, we’ll relaunch Pixma advertising and we’ve got compact advertising coming up.
“So we’ve got everything from on-air to print to outdoor advertising. It’s basically around key programs that we’ve already been running this year up to Christmas, and we also invest in digital to make sure we’re prevalent from a search engine aspect.
"It's a slow launch of the Canon store – we'll review it and over time we'll make adjustments accordingly."