The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

BAHAMIAN retailers must become more innovative in compete with online shopping portals, the Bahamas Chamber of Commerce’s chief executive believes.

Edison Sumner said: “We are at the point now where businesses always have to be innovative. We cannot do business the way we even did it five years ago. We see the proliferation of online shopping with the likes of Amazon, eBay, Alibaba and the rest of it. “The Bahamian retailers are having to now compete directly with online sales. People are finding things less expensive abroad, but here merchants have the cost of import duty, electricity and VAT, so our cost here is higher than other places because of that.”

Mr Sumner added that some Bahamian businesses in recent years have copied the US ‘Black Friday’ promotion, and added: “If local merchants want to retain that business they have to be prepared to bite the bullet and offer similar deals.

“You can’t stop online shopping, but we do encourage persons to try and spend locally and inject money into the local economy as opposed to abroad. If local merchants want to retain some of that market they have to be prepared to offer good discounts, good customer service, and good return polices; something we don’t see much of here.”

Black Friday, the day following Thanksgiving in the US, traditionally marks the beginning of the Christmas shopping season. It has become known as a time when retailers offer significantly low prices on items such as electronics, with customers rushing stores to capitalise on bargains. While many Bahamians also travel to the US every year for Black Friday, some local retailers have been using the shopping tradition to generate more business ahead of the Christmas shopping period.