Canon Australia closes online store to help boost local retailer sales

Canon Australia has recently announced that it’s closing its online store at the end of this month. In other words, you won’t be able to order gear directly from Canon on the entire continent. It sounds like a pretty radical decision, doesn’t it? But according to the company, it’s all in order to help boost sales of local retailers.

Canon Australia’s online store was launched in 2011. “Fast forward to 2020, the unprecedented challenges currently facing the Australian market has seen Canon Australia re-examine the best way to help consumers access our products, services and support,” Canon Australia writes. The result was shutting down the online store in order to “support local retailers to drive competition in the local market and bring you the best value product offers, promotions, services and experiences possible.”

As we all know, this year has been rough to all of us, and gear manufacturers and retailers haven’t been an exception. It’s not only small companies that have been hit by the pandemic, but the huge ones as well. Canon was forced to temporarily suspend its Japan HQ, USA repair center, and five factories. the pandemic reportedly even affected the production of the EOS R5. So, I will dare to assume that the closing of Canon Australia’s online store hasn’t only been a part of efforts to help local retailers. It probably also was a part of a cost-saving strategy.

Anyways, the Canon Store will remain in operation and take orders until 30 September 2020. Purchases made before 30 September will still receive free shipping and will be covered by the “14 Day Peace of Mind” return policy, Canon notes.

At the moment of writing this, many items from the online store are out of stock. But if you find something that you want to order, you can read more here and here before you place an order in the online store that closes soon.

[via PetaPixel]