41 replies to this topic

[yorac]

Then firstly you need to read the forum rules regarding commercial advertising, a condition of signing up......

secondly maybe contact the mods and maybe ask if you could do some subtle promoting via your sig (plenty here do already)......

as for noses out of joint, well I would imagine if people who pay to advertise here see you can do it for nothing then there will be one hell of a free for all......

you should have 24 hour editing available from the time of your post......

and finally the mods here are pretty fair minded as long as you communicate with them, the bottom right of the page provides links to them, good luck with your new venture.............

[yorac]

seems to me the more you post would suggest that you do not have a very well structured business plan and that is almost the first failing of any business mate.........

[Owen]

Retail Buyers Agency, on 04 July 2012 - 02:46 PM, said:

I'm a sole trader who has just started my own business and launched yesterday. From the research I've done so far I can't seem to find any other businesses who do the same thing, so people aren't really going to know to look for me... So I figured the best way to reach the kinds of people who would be looking for my kinds of service would be to write to you directly...

There is no physical address because I don't have a shop-front, as I said, I'm a sole trader who negotiates for my clients, which means all my 'business' will be done over a mobile phone, emails and in the actual store... thus no need for a physical location.

There is a fool born every minute so there will always be people who will not be put off by a lack of a physical address, ABN and land line number, however shrewd consumers should be very reluctant to deal with an on line business that does not provide such information, especially one that has not been trading long and therefore has no track record.
If you have an ABN and or registered business name it would be helpful to state them clearly in the "Contact" page of your web site. An address that matches the ABN or registered business may be optional but certainly provides added credibility. You can say its not a shopfront and for mail only.


Fraud is definitely a concern when dealing with on line businesses, especially when they are starting out and have no history, thats something you have to recognise and deal with.
Getting paid for your service is going to be problematic and without credit card facilities things will be difficult. I cant see how you could use the purchasers credit card details to make the purchase for them, and for the consumer to pay you the full price by any means other than by credit card puts them at unacceptable risk.
Maybe you could provide a quote for the product and your service and only provide info on where to buy when you have been paid your service fee. The amount of money involved would not be significant, not cost much in card fees and be palatable for direct bank transfer.


Best of luck with your enterprise.

Edited by Owen, 04 July 2012 - 09:26 PM.

[bbar]

Agree Owen; and believe it would be easier if the business sold the name and  location of the deal for the goods.  This would allow the purchaser to buy direct once they paid for the purchase information. If it was a negotiated deal then it could require some form of written price arrangement with the supplier which would only be honoured if the written quote was provided from the Business . This would be necessary as the purchaser would not pay for the service unless there were a real savings, so the price would need to be provided prior to the supplier information.

I checked website and it asks for things like advertised price etc... and I am unsure why it is required.

If it is basically a fee-for-service arrangement and the service is - 'I get X% of the savings on any purchase item' then understand why one needs to provide their negotiated price as it forms the basis for the negotiation and payment; not some advertised price though the price can  be an advertised sale price.

I know I would be more comfortable with this type of arrangement especially if payment was made by Paypal.

I would also assume that the business would form strategic partnerships with a set of suppliers allowing for up front negotiated pricing. As example, one could arrange an agreement with a few HI-FI shops to get a substantial discount on Hi-Hi goods purchased and then use them as the basis for all quotes for specific Hi-Fi- goods. There is little money in negotiating a price for every item purchased with a large number of suppliers.

It is almost like a Group Buy for a range of kit the supplier(s) sell(s). One might even be able to do this with Harvey Norman; but unsure of this. There are many GB's that have a preferred supplier arrangement as they have had GB's with them in the past. I ran a few GB's using the same supplier and included a couple of products in the GB and the supplier gave a better price due to the volume of the deal. The biggest GB I was a part of, purchaser not organiser, was for close to 100 Pioneer Plasmas which topped $900k in revenue for the supplier.

Basically, this type of service appeals to me as I can see negotiating a deal with my HIFI shop and asking for a price comparison.

Understand the risk to the business is the customer may go back to their shop and say 'I can get it for this and you need to match'. If they match then there would be 'No Sale' ; however if the price is good enough then their shop may not price match.  Also, if savings were small then one might decide not to purchase the supplier name and pricing as they would prefer to maintain the relationship with their supplier. As example I would buy from my local HIFi shop if price was within $100 ( for say a $2000+ item).

I can also see it for those that don't like to negotiate and want someone else to do it for them. Either way it is a fee-for-service arrangement.

Also, I think it would be much more palatable if the business was a fee-for-service business and collected a percentage of the savings given you want to price as a 'value-add' rather than a fixed-price service.

Edited by bbar, 05 July 2012 - 07:02 AM.

[RBA_Dan]

Owen, on 04 July 2012 - 01:46 PM, said:

I would rather purchase from the US via a mob like Price USA who can buy from any US supplier including shop front only retailers.
They also offer insurance to cover return shipping to the US in the event of a warranty claim for a very modest sum.

Seriously?

Buying online from overseas is certainly one way to save money but there are trade-offs like delivery and insurance costs, difficulties with returning items (not impossibilities, but certainly difficulties) and the damage to the Australian Retail Sector (if you care about that kind of thing).

If, hypothetically, you were able to get the same TV at the same price from either Pay USA or by negotiating the price yourself from an Australian retailer (Pay USA suggests around 10%-50% off prices, and I find you can get around 30%-35% off TVs with good negotiating, so prices might be close), wouldn't it be better to buy from an Australian retailer who can offer home delivery/setup (if you want them) and have good return policies for damaged equipment etc (and even if some of these businesses are forreign owned, they still employ Australian workers). There's something to be said for being able to walk right into a store, look a salesperson in the eye and tell him that you're not happy with something they've done, or sold you; it's probably not worth huge sums of money, but if prices were comparable I think it would surely be worthwhile going local.

[:)]

Even if small price premium, I'd rather buy local. Or not buy at all. Ie buy something else with reasonable local price.

For items we're talking here eg projectors its really not worth it in my opinion grey importing.

[yorac]

Personally don't see this offering anything we're not already doing via GB's here, with the only exception being it can be done on an individual buyer basis..........

[bbar]

Agree Al and for PJ's I would probably not import. For a top brand AVR or AMP then would strongly consider as did when purchased the 4010 player .

There were those that imported the top of the range Marantz multi blu/sacd.... player as $5k cheaper to import than buy here.

Edited by bbar, 05 July 2012 - 12:20 PM.

[bbar]

yorac, on 05 July 2012 - 11:55 AM, said:

Personally don't see this offering anything we're not already doing via GB's here, with the only exception being it can be done on an individual buyer basis..........

Thats pretty much it. One may be able to secure GB type pricing when there is no GB.

[Chopsus]

Buyers Advocates, Agents, Brokers are nothing new and I am surprised the OP thinks his Business Idea is.

Most national Unions include a buyers brokerage for free in their membership. I have used mine a couple of times .... Generally, if you are familiar with the industry, as most here are, you are already privy to the best prices likely.

The only advantage of the OPs model MIGHT be if he has close industry contacts to facilitate near wholesale prices ... Which I doubt.

[RBA_Dan]

Chopsus, on 05 July 2012 - 02:47 PM, said:

Buyers Advocates, Agents, Brokers are nothing new and I am surprised the OP thinks his Business Idea is.

Most national Unions include a buyers brokerage for free in their membership. I have used mine a couple of times .... Generally, if you are familiar with the industry, as most here are, you are already privy to the best prices likely.

The only advantage of the OPs model MIGHT be if he has close industry contacts to facilitate near wholesale prices ... Which I doubt.

I'm conscious of not saying too much here, I don't want to sound like I'm advertising again so I'll try to filter my content accordingly:

I spent hours looking for someone who offered my kind of service and didn't find it... perhaps I wasn't looking in the right place, but in any case I'd say I'm more tech savvy than most, so the fact that I couldn't find anyone who did it meant that it wasn't prominent enough which to me meant there was enough of a market gap for me to fit into. (Search for Retail Agent or Buyer's Agent in Google and all you get is Real Estate Buyer's Agents for pages and pages, in fact, search for my company by name and I don't even appear on the first page... which is disappointing).

I'm not really expecting anyone that is a member of DTV Forum to need me, everyone here obviously has a special interest in this type of thing and knows how to do their research themselves, but it is a forum of like-minded individuals and I've certainly benefited from these discussions. Plus, despite the forum members' knowledge, some may still not like enjoy armwrestling with salespeople.

In any case, I have taken much of the advice on board and applied it to my business model, so I see this as a positive exercise. So even if not one person on here decides to use me, I have certainly improved my services for the next person who comes along. In response to your 'industry contacts' statement, my plan is to establish strong buyer relationships and make bulk purchases so retailers can afford to cut right into their profit margin, and until I get that high volume of interest, I'll just shop around and work hard to get the best prices.

Ultimately I'm not trying to screw anyone, I genuinely believe I can save money for a good portion of the population. I think people are right to be wary, many won't have seen this type of thing before (even if it has existed), so it's natural to ask questions. Although it's not a new idea for me, many of the details have only materialised in the last few months, which is why there were some fairly apparent holes which the members of this forum have capably pointed out (though nobody in my home support network noticed them, so I guess the people here are smarter than the average bear). If it turns out I can't help anyone then I won't have lost much in this enterprise, but there's always the possibility that I've touched on something that could have a real impact.

Edited by Retail Buyers Agency, 05 July 2012 - 03:45 PM.

[Owen]

Retail Buyers Agency, on 05 July 2012 - 09:46 AM, said:

Seriously? Buying online from overseas is certainly one way to save money but there are trade-offs like delivery and insurance costs, difficulties with returning items (not impossibilities, but certainly difficulties) and the damage to the Australian Retail Sector (if you care about that kind of thing). If, hypothetically, you were able to get the same TV at the same price from either Pay USA or by negotiating the price yourself from an Australian retailer (Pay USA suggests around 10%-50% off prices, and I find you can get around 30%-35% off TVs with good negotiating, so prices might be close), wouldn't it be better to buy from an Australian retailer who can offer home delivery/setup (if you want them) and have good return policies for damaged equipment etc (and even if some of these businesses are forreign owned, they still employ Australian workers). There's something to be said for being able to walk right into a store, look a salesperson in the eye and tell him that you're not happy with something they've done, or sold you; it's probably not worth huge sums of money, but if prices were comparable I think it would surely be worthwhile going local.

Everything is on a case by case basis. Some items can be purchased cheaper in Oz than in the US while others (generally high end products) are MUCH cheaper in the US. Even with shipping and insurance the price can be half what it is here and for big dollar items thats a very worthwhile saving. There are also products that are just not available in Oz so the only option is import.
As for warranty, I don’t see it as a big problem. Warranty service is often very slow in Oz and is typically only one year. US warranties can be significantly longer and service will likely be quicker as well, which can easily more than make up for the extra few days in shipping each way.
Price USA cover both way shipping for warranty repairs for a small fee making a US purchase very viable.
Obviously if the item can be obtained locally for a similar price thats the way to go, however paying a business with no track record the full purchase price by any means other than by credit card is not advisable and I would not do it.

[bbar]

Good luck and I can see the value in your enterprise.

I guess I don't see the downside of your business . I say 'Why pay more for something than needs be' ,  and if all it takes is to contact you after researching price to see if you can better then what is the harm. If you can then more savings.I if you can't then one can feel good they have done their homework and gotten a very good price.

Sounds like a win-win to me!

[mmu16]

Best of luck with your business mate.  Seems to be a good idea and if your negotiated price + research cost < Retail price then Hey its a win for everyone!

[RBA_Dan]

I find the margins tend to vary... It's not unusual to get 25-30% off television prices... but then things like Apple products have hardly any margin. In any case I'm planning to work for free for the first little while just so I can get my name out there (and work out any kinks in the process).

[bbar]

Agree that margins vary from the more commodity brands to the more exclusive models and brands.

25% -30% should achievable off RRP for many brands and models.  Getting big savings when item is already discounted by say, a sale, would be a challenge; but a no risk option for a customer to put in a query.


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[archiemoses]

Epson Australia website has the TW5900 for $1450 as a carton damaged special. Thought that was a decent price.