[stephentmcm]

>This is fine with most customers who prefer buying the same jeans for $60 and wait to paying twice as much and having them instantly.

This probably hits closest core of this issue. It's not 10% cheaper to buy overseas it's 15%+ cheaper to buy from overseas. I truly hope this policy is managed correctly and we don't spend more than we recover just to make Gerry Harvey happy.

[crdb]

I've seen much more than 15%. The US businesses run regular discounting that can make every day, branded goods as much as 70% cheaper.

It doesn't look that way online anymore because many businesses have sprouted up with overseas operations and Australian branding. For example Galaxy Perfume, a .com.au, is owned and operated by Perfume Emporium, a US business.

Shipping takes about a week if the warehouse is in Asia, which is OK since Australian post is particularly slow and with the exception of high premium same day delivery services (as offered by, say, The Iconic in big cities) you will wait half a week anyway.

The businesses that play by the rules and have a local warehouse can be hilariously off. For example, I recently bought a bunch of shirts from a Jermyn Street shirtmaker's UK website, because it was a good 50% cheaper, even with international shipping to Sydney, than getting them off their Australian one.

[Mao_Zedang]

I am sure if Australian workers agreed to lower minimum wage to US levels then they too could sell products online for less.