EDITOR’S FORUM
represented online, and have to employ extraordinary resourc- es to police retailers. In short, the effort is just not worth it. So let’s take a realistic look at what would and would not actually happen: 1. Our retailers WOULD be happy. That’s probably the most
important item on this list. Retailers are empowered to reach out and offer products to their customers wherever they are. People complain about how to get “fans” off of Facebook and into buying product. What better way than to be able to immedi- ately link them to a BUY NOW button? 2. Unauthorized sellers WOULD NOT increase. We already
have a mechanism in place for making retailers authorized. Dealers would still need to be authorized to sell product both in-store and online, so it’s not like this would open the flood- gates with unauthorized retailers selling brands.
with companies that transship online or otherwise don’t play by the rules.
5. More selling avenues WOULD mean less temptation / pressure to transship. The ability for retailers to expand their marketing and sales reach gives them the potential to move more product.
6. Brick-and-mortar territorial restrictions WOULD NOT go
away. This essentially gives the closest dealer “first dibs” on the customer. Sure, a dealer could sell to a customer online who is outside his territory, and even offer the customer an in- centive to skip over the closer dealer to come in for installation. But how is that any different from what existing online resellers are doing today? It isn’t. Competition is the lifeblood of what we do, and it’s no different in this scenario. I’m open to ideas on this. This year more than any other, I’ve
Online resellers outsell any of us individually every day of the week. So all you’re really protected against is the guy down the street, and both of you are losing sales to the Internet.”
3. We WOULD start to move online. More authorized Web stores lead to more competition, which also leads to more cre- ativity, more marketing, and increased sales across the board. 4.
Pricing WOULD NOT be out of control. The playing field has already been established, and is running as well as it ever will. The established online resellers are adhering to strict rules on MAP
, which could easily be applied to newcom- ers, and manufacturers already have measures in place to deal 10 Mobile Electronics December | January 2012
seen more companies, organizations and individuals take up the mantle of helping the specialist by raising consumer awareness. As I’ve mentioned before, I do not believe that this will be ac- complished by any of them. Consumer awareness starts and ends with the store; everybody else is just support. So if the store — the retailer — is our front line, then let’s give him every tool and weapon he needs to fight every non-selling excuse we’ve heard since 2008. Give me a call if you want to discuss. ■
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