95% of Australian residents are descendants of immigrants from Britain and other European countries. 98% of residents believe in Christianity, and the rest believe in Judaism, Buddhism and Islam. Australians are serious and straightforward, like to be straightforward, treat people sincerely and enthusiastically, and like to shake hands warmly and call people by their names when they meet. They are happy to make friends, even strangers, and feel like they have known each other for a long time. They advocate friendliness, humility and courtesy, attach importance to public morality, have strong organizational discipline, strong sense of time, and are punctual for appointments and cherish time.
In the eyes of Australians, rabbits are unlucky animals. They believe that encountering rabbits may be a sign of impending bad luck. Australians like sports activities. Swimming and sunbathing are people’s hobbies. If someone can’t swim, they will become the object of ridicule. Talking about horse racing with Australians is a very popular topic.
Australia is a society that emphasizes equality and does not like to order others in a commanding tone. Australians believe that many Americans are too focused on status differences based on education and your wealth and position in the corporate hierarchy. When communicating with Australians in business, you should try to avoid showing them your title and achievements. Any self-praise and show-off will leave a negative impression. For example, Americans advocate “self-praise” and “showing off”, while Australians believe that “high branches must be cut off.” People who brag and show off their own success are considered very annoying.
Australia advocates informal culture, and Australians are not very particular about etiquette. In business activities, Australians are not as time-conscious as Germans, Swiss, Americans and Japanese. Visitors hope that meetings can be held strictly on time, but if you are late for a few minutes, almost no Australian will feel uneasy. Its work efficiency is slower than in New York, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Singapore, and local businessmen will complain about foreigners who try to speed up the work process.
Australia attaches great importance to efficiency because of its vast land and sparse population. They are extremely reluctant to waste time on empty talks that cannot make decisions, and when talking about prices in business communications, they don’t like the other party to quote a high price and then slowly reduce the price. They are extremely reluctant to waste time on bargaining. Usually they purchase goods by bidding, which does not give any chance to bargain, so they must negotiate at the lowest price. The Australian market is a highly competitive market. Generally speaking, Australian importers will only consider importing products directly when the price of a product shipped to Australia and after paying tariffs is at least 15% lower than similar goods. Large importers are also very sensitive to price factors. The price of a new supplier must be significantly lower than the price of a supplier with whom the importer has established a fixed relationship (at least 5%) before the importer will consider changing the purchase channel. Therefore, for suppliers, the price of the first offer must be particularly attractive, so as to attract the interest of Australian importers.
Product packaging quality is very important. In addition to complying with the “Australian Packaging and Labeling Regulations” and the requirements of importers, overseas suppliers must also pay attention to the packaging quality of the retail goods they provide. This is because in Australian retail stores, customers select goods by themselves, so the packaging of the product must have the function of “self-promotion”, must be able to attract the attention of customers and provide sufficient information. When Australian importers are faced with two similar products with similar prices, they will almost invariably choose the one with better retail packaging. In the past 10 years, importers have increasingly higher requirements for the packaging quality of retail goods provided by overseas suppliers. Take bed sheets as an example. Even the simplest bed sheets require good quality packaging with exquisite photos printed on them. Since Australian importers usually order small quantities of products, it is difficult for overseas suppliers to improve the packaging quality, because the small order quantity increases the packaging cost. In addition, suppliers may lose a large number of orders because the packaging quality of the products provided by the supplier does not meet the requirements or the unit cost of the packaging is too high, making the products uncompetitive.
In general, when Australian importers consider a new overseas supplier, they are mainly concerned about the following issues.
(1) Price: The product price should be lower than that of similar products produced locally or from other sources.
(2) Reliability: The quality of the product must be guaranteed for a long time, and the delivery must be timely and contact must be maintained.
(3) Flexibility: The supplier must be able to accept small orders.
If a new supplier can convince Australian businessmen on the above three points, then no matter what products he sells to Australian businessmen, the market prospects will be bright.