buying from o/s a retailers perspective…..



An Interesting read from Mark of Turra Music in sydney …

i would like to share my experiences. I prefer to buy locally but there are times when $ speak louder than words. 18 months ago i researched a new audio interface it was a  TC electronic Konnect 48.

I rang around ,albiet not turra music, and the best price at the time i could get for the TC interface was $2699 the RRP was $3000..  the AUD vs USD was about 78c at the time i could get the same interface delivered from the states for AUD$1099 at that price i could have bought 2, incase one didn't work and still had change .. Now retailers cant play the bleeding heart card when there is such a discrepancy in pricing. A consumer is always going to go for the cheaper option where there is such a gap.

Now that the dollar is so high the RRP is still sitting at $1800 the street price of $1440 you can still get it from the states , delivered for under $1100 a much better difference.. and i would buy locally at that price… 





i know there isn't the same volume of customers here in australia but the way things were going, you were getting gear delivered cheaper than australian wholesale from O/S. no wonder the retailers are screaming.

but i think the retailers anger is misdirected at the consumer. making someone feel guilty for trying to save money isn't really the best way to go about things .. i'd be making my distributor feel guilty before prospective customers..

Having said all that, i'm now noticing someone in the distribution channels must be starting to loose money because the retailer is loosing money because the consumer is getting the gear cheaper than the retailer can get it from the distributor.. as there seems to be a leveling of prices lately…



sorry for the rant just a letter that got me thinking



Gav

I just got a Logitech Squeezebox Touch from Logitech Shop Australia for $240, delivered.

This is considerably cheaper than any online or shopfront retailer in Australia or The States.



I think it may vary from product to product.

I agree with everything you said Gav.



Im of the exact same opinion. Im about to delve into the world of HD Native and I typically buy all my gear from Turra. Good guys great service. The price difference is almost too much to argue with, however being Avid there is no support due to being in another country......



So begins the pros and cons debate......



Anyway thats not the issue here. More the sometimes obscene price difference of US v Australia.

If Australian customs got their Ship together and started applying the same duties to consumer purchases as they do to business (i.e. distributors/importers), this problem would be solved very quickly. The price discrepancy would pretty much vanish, and if it didn't then we would know that the importer was possibly taking the piss, or allowing an excessive margin for warranty and so on.

Having worked on the distributor side of things, they're kind of stuck. They get landed with duties and so on that the individual purchaser often doesn't get hit with. Plus, as a local guy they're expected to provide warranty, and that doesn't always get covered by the manufacturer, sometimes they just have to wear it. So, I don't blame them for adding a bit to cover that.

I will always buy locally, unless the price difference is ridiculously huge in absolute terms. I'm not worried if something here is 200% more than something from the states or wherever if that 200% is only worth $30 or so. If we're talking a thousand bucks or similar, sure, then I'm going to start talking to the local importer and letting them know that I'd rather buy locally but I simply cannot justify it. I have often found that they will try to match the overseas price, or at least come closer to it. I always like to give them a chance before pulling the carpet out from under them.

If we stop supporting the local market, then the shop keepers stop keeping stock (try saying that in a hurry); then we end up with a situation where nothing is kept in stock but they'll order it in for you - but only after you place the order and commit to buy it. In other words, no chance to try before you buy. This often happens in small markets, and it's where the on-line purchasing thing ultimately leads. On-line sellers have no need to maintain and staff a store just so that people can go in and test things before buying.

What happens to shops a lot these days is that they keep the stuff in stock, they keep a shop open and provide a service whereby potential customers can go in and try something. But then, after trying it and deciding to buy it, the potential customer purchases from overseas. Without realising it, they have just ripped of the shop and weakened their local market... That makes it harder next time.

Don't mean to diverge, but does anybody know how or why companies like Adobe can justify one price in their US store and then a greatly hiked price for the same product in the Adobe Australian store? I'm not kidding, it is complete bull as far as I can tell:

download Adobe Audition from adobe.com.au – $580 AUD

download Adobe Audition from adobe.com – $349 USD

Of course, unless I have a US address and US credit card I can't shop at the US store! This has pissed me off to the point where I even jumped onto the Adobe Live Customer Chat thing (US based) and requested an explanation as to how and why their pricing is structured as such. I was so annoyed in fact, that I saved a transcript (yes, slightly obsessive I know). The response was:

Samantha: We understand your concern. We want to make sure that we are giving our Customers the
best products and at the right price.




Samantha: There are many factors that decide pricing like 'the cost
of doing business in each country' and the 'difference in the perceived
value of the product.




Samantha: However, we're sure that the Adobe products add value by helping you get the desired output at ease, efficiency and speed.





WTF Adobe?

That price looks unnecessarily inflated, as if they are using a spreadsheet with a very old exchange rate for the Aussie dollar; add a bit of importer and retailer profit margin and the price looks more believable.

From what I can tell, Adobe don't have an Australian branch/office but use an importer based in South Melbourne by the name of BCA IT Ltd. That explains why you cannot buy from the US store; Adobe are ethically doing the right thing by protecting their international importers/distributors. If Adobe allowed you to buy directly from their US on-line store then the local importer would drop their products like a hot potato and there'd be no local representation to place advertising, hold product demos, handle customer care, attend local trade shows and so on. [I wish more manufacturers would do this, actually.]

If I am right, then the question is why does BCA IT set their price so high? Perhaps they perceive their core market as being affluent. That core market won't be you and I, it will be large graphics houses, printing companies, publishers and so on who probably buy dozens of license at a time; if you start with a high price you can provide a worthwhile bulk discount to keep your client's bean counters happy and seal the deal. Certainly graphics and visual professionals are a more affluent lot than most audio and music professionals, and as a community they are probably as dependent on Adobe products as the music/audio industry is dependent on Avid.

So maybe the local importer charges what they believe their market can bear... I'm not saying it's right, by the way, it's just one of the possibilities allowed by capitalism.

Yeah, I figured they were keeping their local distributor happy etc, it just bums me that if I were to purchase the digital download it would [presumably] come from the exact same data centre as somebody purchasing it from North America but at such a ridiculously inflated price.

I might contact BCA IT directly and bug them, thank you for that titbit of info.