Journalists, technology focussed ones in particular, are awash with press releases about ?click frenzy?, an event which bills itself as ?Austalia?s first online-only mega sale!?, in reality a confected attempt to produce a national replica of ?Cyber Monday? and other similar overseas single day sales. ?This is all presumably an alternative to more traditional tactics such as ?selling things people want to buy at reasonable prices from easy to use, secure websites and ensuring accurate and speedy delivery.?
The organisation behind it is ironically called ?Global Marketplace?, and headed up by a gentleman by the name of Grant Arnott. ?According to the company documentation filed with ASIC in May by the group?s lawyer in July, the company?s headquarters are in Monaro, NSW and aren?t particularly inspiring.
But trying to market your way to revitalising Australia?s languid online commerce space isn?t a particular concern to online society and policy. ?What is more worth keeping an eye on, is what sort of reactions come out when journalists, peripherally connected business and sundry interest groups get wind of a flurry of online retailing.
Internet security companies have been issuing press releases to tech journalists in the hope that the online safety aspect of the ?event? will make headlines, and hopefully terrified shoppers will buy home PC security software as their first thrust of frenzied online consumerism in a few hours time. ?Some stories have already started to run in tabloid tech sections about ?leaked pricing?, which seems to be an attempt to get people excited about 30% discounts on products which are 200% the price they are in the US or UK.
I?m fairly sure the next 24 hours might see a moderate uptick in online shopping from Australian retailers, but it?s likely to do more harm than good. ?Australian online shopping is a mess of bad retailers with bad models charging extortionate prices that aren?t explained by their usual hand-wringing about taxes and the cost of doing business in Australia. ?By encouraging a one day period of everybody giving it a try (motivated by slightly saner prices), it?s more likely to expose it for what it is than become a regular event similar to the Cyber Monday experience. ? In any event, expect uncritical repetition of press releases about how exciting the whole thing was as well as what great bargains were available and how it?s lucky that we weren?t all killed by the cyber attacks that affect 18 people a second1.
What?s going to be particularly infuriating is when the retail companies? websites crash under unplanned-for increases in load, largely from journalists and tire kickers, and tomorrow?s headline is ?websites collapse under success of click frenzy?.
1Actual statistic circulated in an infographic attached to a Norton press release.
Source: http://www.geordieguy.com/2012/11/clickhead-frenzy/
zambrano orange bowl tim howard goal ben gibbard nfl playoff schedule tim howard scores nick cannon kidney failure
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.