New retail website advice

[bloodugly]

We actually CAN compete on price

 

[seemingly random]

Originally posted by: bloodugly
We actually CAN compete on price

Here's a mind bender for you. If a little op can compete on price with huge retailers which have the advantage of economy of scale, then something seems off. Is the merchandise hot?

 

[DaveSimmons]

Originally posted by: bloodugly
We actually CAN compete on price

Given Newegg's purchasing power that could mean either or both of:
a) you're paying yourself next to nothing for your time, including time to pack and ship
b) you're not figuring in all of your costs:
- packing materials
- CC/PayPal fraud
- handling defective RMAs
- restocking non-defective RMAs then selling "open box" at a loss
- business permits, insurance, taxes

 

[Old Hippie]

Originally posted by: seemingly random

Originally posted by: bloodugly
We actually CAN compete on price

Here's a mind bender for you. If a little op can compete on price with huge retailers which have the advantage of economy of scale, then something seems off. Is the merchandise hot?

I believe it's one of the inherent risks of economy of scale to include an "economy of idiots" for unneeded/rip-off returns which is included in your final price.

 

[Corporate Thug]

Originally posted by: DaveSimmons

Originally posted by: bloodugly
We actually CAN compete on price

Given Newegg's purchasing power that could mean either or both of:
a) you're paying yourself next to nothing for your time, including time to pack and ship
b) you're not figuring in all of your costs:
- packing materials
- CC/PayPal fraud
- handling defective RMAs
- restocking non-defective RMAs then selling "open box" at a loss
- business permits, insurance, taxes

This. Personally, I would be a little suspicious of a small operation matching/beating/being competitive w/ newegg.

 

[seemingly random]

Originally posted by: Old Hippie

Originally posted by: seemingly random

Originally posted by: bloodugly
We actually CAN compete on price

Here's a mind bender for you. If a little op can compete on price with huge retailers which have the advantage of economy of scale, then something seems off. Is the merchandise hot?

I believe it's one of the inherent risks of economy of scale to include an "economy of idiots" for unneeded/rip-off returns which is included in your final price.

Yeah. I can't (and don't want to) imagine the bs that goes along with being a retailer.

 

[Nik]

Originally posted by: bloodugly
So you guys think that advertising that we are small, can't always answer the phone, but still respond to emails within a few hours and ship quickly would be good?

No. Not answering the phone is huge to me. Huge.

 

[bloodugly]

Originally posted by: DaveSimmons

Originally posted by: bloodugly
We actually CAN compete on price

Given Newegg's purchasing power that could mean either or both of:
a) you're paying yourself next to nothing for your time, including time to pack and ship
b) you're not figuring in all of your costs:
- packing materials
- CC/PayPal fraud
- handling defective RMAs
- restocking non-defective RMAs then selling "open box" at a loss
- business permits, insurance, taxes

All of these factors are considered. However, much of what will be sold is not stuff you'll find at newegg, for example alot of watercooling fittings as well as other mods that are typically bought from the likes of Xoxide, CoolerGuys, FrozenCPU, etc. Also, many of you might be surprised by the margins on many of these items. Heatsinks seem to have the worst margins, as well as some of the other more expensive mods/items. There's a reason that the smaller sites carry so many little add-on/accessory items...the margins are amazing on those. For example, there is an item alot of sites carry now that costs under 3 after shipping from China via air and is sold for 8 or 9 dollars. Also, just because a big site CAN buy stuff cheaper, it doesn't mean they're passing those savings along to you, especially if they don't feel they need to because they have a name and recognition.