Tech retailers should be doing...

Foxhound5366

Foxhound5366

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The state of tech retail is pretty miserable in South Africa, isn't it?

Salespeople who typically don't know what they're selling, devices which are old and not cutting-edge in any way, tech discounts which are 10-15% as if we are meant to get excited about it ... it feels like a massive missed opportunity, especially in the context of people who are so worried about being scammed online, or fake products from Takealot third-party sellers.

What is the best tech retail experience you've had, in South Africa or internationally, and what made it so good?
 
Foxhound5366 said:
The state of tech retail is pretty miserable in South Africa, isn't it?
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Are you referring to brick and mortar tech retail or are you including online?

Foxhound5366 said:
tech discounts which are 10-15% as if we are meant to get excited about it
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Yeah... the tech space is cut-throat, over saturated and often has very low margins.

My best experiences have been with online stores, the brick and mortar places can't afford to carry enough variety... 1. because it's kak expensive and 2. there is sooo much variety these days.
 
warrenpridgeon said:
Are you referring to brick and mortar tech retail or are you including online?


Yeah... the tech space is cut-throat, over saturated and often has very low margins.

My best experiences have been with online stores, the brick and mortar places can't afford to carry enough variety... 1. because it's kak expensive and 2. there is sooo much variety these days.
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Yeah dude, a massive tech trends is people using physical stores to touch products, and then go buy them online at a cheaper retailer. Not great for the tech stores, but it doesn't seem like they're doing much to make their stores irresistible. And yet I still think we need them, there's something irresistible about actually messing around with demo units.
 
Incredible does have some +more specials that can be pretty low compared to even online sometimes, but you need to be a +more member, but it's not like it's hard to do, I am one and never get any emails or such.
 
Lupus said:
Incredible does have some +more specials that can be pretty low compared to even online sometimes, but you need to be a +more member, but it's not like it's hard to do, I am one and never get any emails or such.
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Yeah, Incredible have these crazy Red Star discounts on demo laptops sometimes, my girlfriend bought our son a really awesome Asus laptop for only R6000 ... it was marked down by R14 000 iirc, and normally I'd be sceptical about that but this really is a stunning laptop (ticks all the boxes and frankly I'm jealous coz I wanted it rofl).
 
Jean Claude Vaaldamme said:
I stay close to Evetech. Just drive there in and out in a jiffy. They always have everything I want at great prices.
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Phew, talk about an unpopular opinion on MyBB. Some these parts will tell you that Evetech are the devil, but personally my work's IT manager buys a lot from them and it's all good (I'm not affected by aftersales lol). I think my new Lenovo work laptop is from them actually, working like a charm.
 
Foxhound5366 said:
but it doesn't seem like they're doing much to make their stores irresistible.
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What can they do though? With the way most economies are people want "as cheap as possible" and having a "properly stocked" storefront with enough variety is a practical impossibility - nobody has the budget to stock at least 1 of everything even semi popular.

If they DO manage to pull off having "almost enough stock" a lot of people rolling in could easily want something they don't have and then they have to order it... and with their higher than online stores running costs they have to do the item at a higher price.

If people go to a physical store and have to order a thing they don't want to pay more just because it's from a physical store.

The people who are willing to pay more for the ability to go play with a physical object vs those wanting the best value for money is low.
 
Foxhound5366 said:
Yeah, Incredible have these crazy Red Star discounts on demo laptops sometimes, my girlfriend bought our son a really awesome Asus laptop for only R6000 ... it was marked down by R14 000 iirc, and normally I'd be sceptical about that but this really is a stunning laptop (ticks all the boxes and frankly I'm jealous coz I wanted it rofl).
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If you buy in person please ask the salesperson if they want the sale reflected on their name. When I worked at incredible the salespeople ate the discounts when the items sold below cost.
 
warrenpridgeon said:
If you buy in person please ask the salesperson if they want the sale reflected on their name. When I worked at incredible the salespeople ate the discounts when the items sold below cost.
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Sorry can you explain? I don't understand what "ate the discount" means. If I see a discounted price and happily pay it, what happens with the salesperson?
 
Foxhound5366 said:
Sorry can you explain? I don't understand what "ate the discount" means. If I see a discounted price and happily pay it, what happens with the salesperson?
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If the thing cost R1000 for incredible and they sell thing for R800 the salesperson takes the knock on their earnings/commission structure. And during sales they sold things below cost and we'd put those items on "house" (i.e. person helped themselves at the shelf).
 
warrenpridgeon said:
If the thing cost R1000 for incredible and they sell thing for R800 the salesperson takes the knock on their earnings/commission structure. And during sales they sold things below cost and we'd put those items on "house" (i.e. person helped themselves at the shelf).
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That's weird ... Incredible is making their salespeople pay for in-store specials??? I wouldn't think that would last, there's not enough sales margin for sales people to cover that repeatedly surely.
 
Foxhound5366 said:
That's weird ... Incredible is making their salespeople pay for in-store specials??? I wouldn't think that would last, there's not enough sales margin for sales people to cover that repeatedly surely.
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Not in store specials, rather when eg an item is R 2,999 and you ask them if they can do R 2,950. The R 49 will come out of their commission / GP target. This is pretty standard for distribution and retail.
 
Don't understand the problem. Thats why you are a salesman, to sell. Anyone can sell anything at a discount. If you want to give discount then your commission should also be less.
This is nothing new. I sold new cars years ago and it worked the same. You give discount, your commission is less.
 
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