JB Hi-Fi Chief Richard Murray speaks about Amazon's threat as it enters Australia
JB Hi-Fi chief Richard Murray said on Wednesday that he was not threatened by Amazon's retails offering in Australia. Instead, he said that the stores would keep up the competition. the company currently have 300 distrIbution stores that are conveniently located around the country.
“Now obviously there are some things that Amazon has done very well, but the thing about it, be it Amazon or Alibaba or any of these pure plays is that I guess, the hype and the reality are always a challenge ... and you have to be careful not to overreact," Murray said during the American Chamber of Commerce lunch.
He also recognised that the US retail company has a high percentage of market share in the US around online sales. But he also noted that apart from Amazon, there are plenty of successful retailers in the US.
“Competition drives us to be better, and Amazon has had an amazing journey overseas. But the reality is they have a high market share in the US around online sales ... and when we think about that, the power of in-store and online is incredibly powerful,” Murray said.
“If we continue to keep on the money on price and we have the lowest cost of doing business — that is really powerful,” Murray said. “Across a basket of goods we want to be the best value in the market. Today we know we are and we plan to stay that way.”
On Nov. 25, Woolworths announced that it is already planning for the arrival of Amazon in Australia in 2017.
Read more: Woolworths sets up a plan to compete with Amazon store's arrival in Australia 2017
On Monday, JB Hi-Fi formally closed the $870 million acquisition of The Good Guys.
"The acquisition is a very attractive strategic opportunity for JB Hi-Fi since The Good Guys is a highly complementary business which is aligned with our management philosophy and significantly enhances our offering in the $4.6 billion home appliance market," Murray said in a statement.
