Why GST free international sales are not killing local retail

With Amazon.com recently being forced to pay state sales taxes in the USA some people are raising the question again about why GST cannot be levied on overseas based online retailers.  Well, this particular issue is a domestic U.S. problem where state sales taxes vary from one state to another and no international borders are crossed, so the problem is a little simpler to solve. 

We also do not have this issue in Australia.  GST is national and is levied on online purchases from Australian companies. The collection of GST on low value purchases from overseas is said not to be economically viable; however I am sure it could be done by data collection from banks, Paypal and other

Nowhere to hide!

One of the big themes of the 21st century is the free flow of power transparency and control of information to the consumer.  KV Pharmaceuticals were granted exclusivity by the FDA on a life saving drug that used to cost $20 but they raised the price to $1500.  They were called out for unconscionable behaviour in a Facebook campaign and are now in Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

The consequences for KV were dire but the principal applies to all companies everywhere.  The internet leaves you nowhere to hide if your price, service, fulfillment, social or ethical behaviour, environmental policies - whatever does not meet with acceptable standards you risk being found out and publicly called out by your customers or commentators.

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Three ways to sell online

There are three types of online businesses.  

• The single brand direct to consumer, 
• the direct retailer of many brands and 
• the brand aggregator.  

An example of a single brand would be Apple, or fashion brands like Carla Zampatti, Roman Daniels or specialty boutique brands like Farmhouse Muesli.  The single brand has a unique product story that people seek out because it offers them something they cannot get anywhere else.  This is the strongest and safest strategy, make and deliver something unique that people want and you will never have to compete solely on price.  The single brand has the luxury of being able to choose whether to outsource their logistics because price is less of an issue and their margins are higher.  If their brand has no

Green Supply Chain - what you need to know and what you should be doing

The climate change debate has been raging for some years now.  Some people think the climate is warming, some think it is not.  Some think it is warming but there is nothing we can or should do about it, but the majority view is that climate change is our responsibility and we can and must do something. 

Well now, it doesn’t really matter what you think, because the tide of public opinion, government action, energy investment and technology development, is now on an irrevocable path towards       a low carbon economy.

The three major drivers towards a low carbon economy  (apart from the science) are:

What can the pharmaceutical industry learn about branding from the consumer goods industry?

In Australia, where drug advertising on TV is not allowed, the corporate branding of drug manufacturers is not all that strong in the general population.  Where advertising is allowed for over the counter medicines the branding is product focussed rather than manufacturer focussed.  This seems to me to be at least in part due to the industry practice of selling drug brands to other manufacturers or retiring them to a generic manufacturer once they are off patent.  The ongoing consolidation of manufacturers also means that manufacturer brands change or disappear every few years.  As a consequence