David Jones Vs Meyer

When asking a native Australian what comes to mind when the word department store

is mentioned, they will immediately reply with either David Jones or Myer. David Jones is a high-

end Australian department store founded in 1838, making it the oldest operating department

store in Australia and one of the oldest in the world, celebrating it’s 175th anniversary as of

March 2013. As a department store, David Jones is associated with luxuriously chic fashion

forward product. Competing with David Jones as a leading Australian department store would

be Myer. As a department store, Myer caters to a less exclusive, yet extremely large

demographic of people looking to receive quality product and customer service at a variety of

different price points. Although both of these department stores have seen a large amount of

profitability, it is evident with global retailers bringing their companies to Australia, business has

been suffering tremendously at David Jones and Myer. In order to save these department

stores, it is imperative that David Jones and Myer take action soon to save their businesses. A

potential solution that could increase profitability as well as conceivably save these retailers is

that David Jones and Myer should merge into one company.

In order to save the business of David Jones and Myer, one potential solution is to have

the companies merge under one umbrella of a company. American company Macy’s Inc., is a

company that functions as one umbrella with Macy’s department store, a successful omni-

channel retailer comparable to Myer and Bloomindale’s, a more luxurious, exclusive department

store comparable to David Jones.

One reason in particular why merging these two retailers under an umbrella of a

company would be a wise decision is that if this is done properly, David Jones and Myer will still

be able to keep up with the modern consumer. Keeping up with the modern consumer is one of

the larger reasons why David Jones and Myer might be suffering as fashion retailers. Modern

consumers are being drawn to fast fashion retailers such as Zara, Top Shop, and H&M due to

the fact that these retailers are able to keep up with what drives a customer to buy, that is, new

innovative ways to shop. It is quite clear that department stores serve an entirely different

purpose than fast fashion retailers, however, that is not to say that they do not have an

obligation to keep up with what the modern consumer wants. An area to look at when trying to

keep up with consumers is to establish a creative product presentation as well as product mix.

David Jones and Myer actually have an advantage to being a department store due to the fact

that they carry a variety of different product for women, men, and children. Therefore, they have

more options and product to be creative with. Many customers have stopped shopping at

department stores due to the fact that it can get quite overwhelming. If David Jones and Myer

were to merge under one umbrella company, David Jones would be able to create a visual

merchandising strategy that is appealing to their higher end customer. Conversely, Myer caters

to a wider variety of customers, so it is possible that they could create a more creative product

presentation that has a bit more edge