Forum Moderators: buckworks
Now this will send a few shocks round the ecommerce world. If Sony manage to convince a few other brands to do the same and create a virtual Cartel on pricing, loads of smaller online businesses that can't buy in bulk will surely be affected.
Not sure this is a great thing for ayone - except the brands!
It was brought about by pressure from high street shops, who were confronted by customers demanding they match website prices or loose the sale. Others were finding customers would use them as a source of information then buy on line.
It's a very difficult problem for the manufacturers. On one hand they need dealers on the high street, to demonstrate new products, do repairs etc. On the other its much cheaper for them to supply internet only accounts.
The person on the street has also got to decide what they want:-
If that's the lowest possible price with little or no aftersales care, the internet is the place to go.
But if they want to see and touch products before they buy, ask questions before (and after) they buy, and get items mended when they go wrong, the high street is for them.
Its interesting that most electrical retailers don't see the internet as their biggest threat, but the big supermarkets. They can deliver near internet prices, combined with the chance to compare products and repairs.
Whatever happens it certain there will be fewer electrical retailers on the high street in the next few years, one rep from a major manufacturer recently told me that 15% of their small independant dealers had closed in the last year.
