µ a word from MERA
Finding the Best Deals H
ey Sam, how’s your quest to find some new speakers to replace the ones that blew in your car? Not too bad, I went down to a local car stereo store and lis-
tened to a few of them and found some I really like. Did you buy them? No, they wanted too much for them and then wanted way too much to put them in the car. So, what are you going to do? I Googled the speakers and found them for almost half of what that store charges from some company called Three Queens. Who’s Three Queens? No idea but it’s the same product so who cares. You don’t know how to take apart your car so how are you going to get them installed? I’ll just go back to that car stereo store and use the money I saved on the speakers to get them installed. As a specialty retailer this story and many more play out every
day and the effect on your business is unfavorable at best. Did I use the word “unfa- vorable”? Sure did, and I’m sure you can find a few words to express your feelings on this topic as well. So tell me of an
CHRIS COOK PRESIDENT
Wait, did I just imply that the Internet was the prob- lem? No, but that is usually the first thing a specialty retailer will point to that many times is the result of trans-shipping. We have all heard the complaints about eBay and Amazon, but the real damage is done on other websites that I don’t even need to name. So retailer A gets a call from, let’s say for example, Three Queens, and the Internet seller needs to buy a lot of product to fulfill demand for a brand that they are not authorized to sell. That same retailer is looking for a few extra bucks and says, “Why not, if I can’t beat them I might as well make some money from it”. And this begins the spiral. So what does the manufacturer do? Many times nothing. This is not to
“Make suggestions on what your store can do to better support the supplier if the practice was halted. Let them know the actual damage caused. Find a way to partner with them to grow your sales rather than take an easier road to move product.”
industry that has a product that can be bought at nearly half the retail price on the Internet as opposed to the brick-and-mor- tar retailer? It’s very hard to find. So why does this appear to be unique to our industry? Some say because we are an industry in decline so suppliers and retailer’s alike need to keep the doors open and the lights on. Others might say that this practice has been going on for years and has nothing to do with decline only greed. Regardless of your opinion, the practice of trans-shipping provides the consumer a price that is below what a specialty retailer can sell their product and be profitable. So why does trans-shipping continue to exist? Simple, it moves product. So if moving product is the goal, why can’t the specialty retailer be that product mover? They can, but only as much as their local market can bear. And therein lies the problem. The Internet is where most consumers shop and few specialty
retailers have figured out the secret sauce on building, main- taining and driving consumers to their presence on the Internet.
66 Mobile Electronics May 2014
knock the manufacturer either, they need to make the numbers to keep the lights on as well. Does any of this make it right? Not really, but this practice has become all too common and contin- ues to erode the specialty retailer sales channel. So what do we (and I mean we as in all of us that are part of the
Mobile Electronics industry) do to stop this and other harm- ful practices? You have to say no! In addition, you have to stop supporting the practice. When you find a retailer that is in ques- tion, bring it to your supplier and ask what can be done to stop it. Make suggestions on what your store can do to better support the supplier if the practice was halted. Let them know the actual damage caused. Find a way to partner with them to grow your sales rather than take an easier road to move product. Look, as a former retailer and supplier I have never been
comfortable with trans-shipping or any unfair business prac- tice. And as the president of MERA I can’t in good conscience look the other way. MERA’s mission is to grow the industry and I truly believe that this practice is hindering the growth of both the specialty retailer and their supplier. I will do what I can to stop this. Just take a moment and think about your business, your influence on others and do what you can to support fair business practices for our industry. µ
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