Gametech 2011: Retail trends and the Aussie consumer

Who was there: Paul Yardley, managing director of game retailer GAME Australia.

What they talked about: "I think retail owes the industry an apology for taking what you guys put into games and turning them into boxed products with stickers on them," Yardley began. "It's not what we should do with fun products. This is not how retail should be selling games. It doesn't do justice to the products and makes consumers think we produce bad products. Retailers are full of dull shop walls, little customer service, no passion, and no excitement. It's disappointing, and it's time for retail to change."

As the managing director for GAME in Australia, Yardley believes consumers are demanding retail to change. Consumers now have a lot of choice, and this means they need help and guidance to understand the complexity of the current gaming landscape. According to Yardley, a successful retailer needs to provide customers with something new and different; it needs to be able to guide and inspire consumers. Consumers can now decide where to spend their money and how to spend it. Today's consumers are empowered, and they want a variety of ways to pay. This, Yardley says, is a demand that needs to be fulfilled.

Yardley then moved on to his second major point, the future of retail stores. The question here was how can retailers evolve to make sure they stay relevant? While structural changes have occurred in both the book and the music worlds, gaming is different: developers and publishers are not tied by law in regards to game prices. What this means is that retailers need to pick up their game in regards to delivering the right information to consumers--they need to demonstrate that games have value.

Yardley then talked about GAME's plans to change this by adding hands-on displays in the stores and hiring staff that know what they're talking about. It's also about trust--Yardley thinks consumers are more likely to come back if they feel like they can get honesty and integrity from the sales staff. Yardley admits retailers need to get all this correct before things can really change in Australia's retail market.

Yardley's final point was about the current opportunities and challenges of online. He believes that online presents a potential for growth but that traditionally, retailers have been slow to adapt to it. "Retailers in Australia have been generally scared of online. I don't understand it." According to Yardley, online sales make up 3.5 percent of retail sales in Australia, meaning that more and more Australian customers are moving online, spurred by the changes in the local industry and the rise of the Australian dollar. "The question for the industry is: are we really convinced that our pricing model here is the right one?"

Yardley then outlined GAME's online strategy, which revolves around using customer trust to extend reach and lower cost. Consumers need to trust a retailer before giving out personal information. Yardley ended by saying that if game retailers can find a new way of operating, it could help to draw consumers back to brick and mortar stores in Australia.

Quote: "What's a map pack?"--a gaming retail assistant in answer to Yardley's request for the Call of Duty: Black Ops map pack. (Yardley went around to various gaming retailers in Australia to observe how they dealt with requests for information.)

Takeaway: Yardley's discussion was engaging and relevant, outlining how Australian retailers can do more to improve customer loyalty and keep customers coming back to traditional retailers rather than shopping at overseas online stores.